Parliamentary and District Reforms

Two years ago, after the local election in 1999, the city of Bergen implemented two major political reforms: city district reform and parliamentary reform.

The City District reform.
From January 2000, Bergen has been divided into eight urban districts with their own Councils and local administrations. Each District Council has 13 members appointed by the City Parliament. The District Council also reflects the political composition of the City Parliament. The districts, with population between 12 000 to 40 000 inhabitants, are responsible for about 80% of the expenditures (where investments are not included).

The District Councils have wide power over a wide range of welfare tasks. The services they are responsible for are care for the elderly, primary health care, social services, childcare, care for the disabled, primary schools, kindergardens, local culture, parks and recreation and some technical services.

The main goals or reasons for implementing the City District reform were to increase local democracy, to increase participation and community involvement, to use more effective municipal resources and to improve working conditions for the employees.

The Parliamentary reform.
In June 2000, Bergen implemented a parliamentary system of governance. The City Parliament has 67 representatives and is the highest political authority. Four standing committees are responsible for preparing proposals and reports for the City Parliament The City Parliament elects the City Government that has seven comissioners with extensive executive power. The commissioners head the municipal administrations and are responsible for all the municipal activities, including the City Districts administrations. The City Government must have confidence in the City Parliament.

The City Parliament elects members of the District Councils and at least 3 of them (including the leader) are members of the City Parliament. The leader of the District Council is a half-time politician.

Some arguments for the Parliamentary reform were to make the politicians more visible, to increase the responsibility and accountability of the politicians, to sharpen the political differences between the political parties, to increase the political control and influence over the municipal administration and to make people more interested in politics.

Both the City District reform and the Parliamentary reform are going to be evaluated during 2002-2003.