Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Bureaucracy in transition / Haldor Byrkjeflot and Fredrik Engelstad -- The impact and interpretation of Weber's bureaucratic ideal type in organisation theory and public administration / Haldor Byrkjeflot -- Building state infrastructural capacities : Sweden and Greece / Apostolis Papakostas -- From neutral competence ot competent neutrality? Revisiting neutral competence as the core normative foundation of Western bureaucracy / Thurid Hustedt and Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen -- Outcome-based performance management systems : experiences from the Danish and Swedish tax agencies / Karen Boll -- Anti-bureaucratic identities among top bureaucrats? Societal norms and professional practices among senior civil servants in Britain, France and Norway / Marte Mangset -- Economists in government bureaucracies / Johan Christensen -- Multiple shades of grey : opening the black box of public sector executives' hybrid role identities / Stephan Leixnering, Andrea Schikowitz, Gerhard Hammerschmid and Renate E. Meyer -- The building of the Scandinavian states : establishing Weberian bureaucracy and curbing corruption from the mid-seventeenth to the end of the nineteenth century / Mette Frisk Jensen -- Nordic bureaucracy beyond new public management / Carsten Greve, Per Lœgreid and Lise H. Rykkja -- A new organisation of public administration : from internatl to external control / Kristin Reichborn-Kjennerud, Thomas Carrington, Kim Klarskov Jeppesen and Külli Taro -- Street-level bureaucracy and crosscutting cleavages in municipal worlds / Halvard Vike -- Codification and ethos of office : contextualising a codex-solution introduced in the Danish central administration / Thomas Lopdrup-Hjorth and Anne Roelsgaard Obling.