Public sector reform and blame avoidance effects

Bibliographic Data

ID6296177
AuthorsPeter Bjerre Mortensen (0000-0001-5809-3260, Aarhus University, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume33
Issue2
Pages229-253
Publication date2013-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Public Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0143-814X • E-ISSN: 1469-7815
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0143814x13000032
OpenAlexW2335665486
LanguageEN
Citations received35
References cited56

Blame avoidance has often been claimed to be an important rationale behind changes in the organisation of the public sector, but very few studies have examined whether and how public attribution of responsibility is actually affected by such reforms. For instance, how do changes in the formal allocation of authority affect public attribution of blame when things go wrong? Is the effect immediate or delayed? To advance our understanding of such questions, this paper presents an analysis of blame and credit attribution in more than 1,200 newspaper articles about health-care-related issues in Norway before and after the major Norwegian hospital reform from 2002. The central empirical finding of the article is that central state-level authorities in Norway were attributed less blame in media coverage of health-care problems after the reform than before the reform. The shift is delayed, but substantial and robust to various modifications in model estimations

Affect (linguistics · Attribution · Blame · Economics · Empirical evidence · Newspaper · Norwegian · Political science · Public economics · Public relations · Public sector · State (computer science · Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering · Psychology · Public Policy and Administration Research · Regulation and Compliance Studies · Social Psychology