County municipality (Norway)
Encyclopedia
A county municipality is a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 public elected body that is responsible for certain public administrative and service tasks within a county
Counties of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities...

. Each county consists of county municipality, with the exception of Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, which is both a municipality
Municipalities of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...

 and a county municipality. The main responsibility of the county municipalities are upper secondary schools
Education in Norway
Education in Norway is mandatory for all children aged 6–16. The school year in Norway runs from mid August to late June the following year. The Christmas holiday from mid December to early January historically divides the Norwegian school year into two terms...

, dental care
Dental care
Dental care is the maintenance of healthy teeth. Forms include:* Oral hygiene, the practice of keeping the mouth and teeth clean in order to prevent cavities , gum disease, and other dental disorders....

, public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...

, county roads
Road
A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...

, culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

, cultural heritage management
Cultural Heritage Management
Cultural heritage management is the vocation and practice of managing cultural heritage. It is a branch of cultural resources management , although it also draws on the practices of conservation, restoration, museology, archaeology, history and architecture...

, land use planning
Land use planning
Land-use planning is the term used for a branch of public policy encompassing various disciplines which seek to order and regulate land use in an efficient and ethical way, thus preventing land-use conflicts. Governments use land-use planning to manage the development of land within their...

 and business development.

Each county council main body is the county council
County council (Norway)
A County Council is the highest governing body of the county municipalities in Norway. The county council sets the scope of the county municipal activity. The council is led by a chairman or county mayor...

 (fylkesting), elected by direct election by all legal residents every fourth year. The next election will be held on Monday September 12, 2011. The county councils typically have 30-50 members and meet about six times a year. They are divided into standing committees and an executive board (fylkesutvalg), that meet considerably more often. Both the council and executive board are led by the Chairman of the County Council or County Mayor (fylkesordfører).

Some counties, including Nord-Trøndelag
Nord-Trøndelag county municipality
Nord-Trøndelag County Municipality is the regional governing administration of Nord-Trøndelag, Norway. The main responsibilities of the county municipality includes the running of 12 upper secondary schools, with 7,000 pupils...

 and Nordland
Nordland County Municipality
Nordland County Municipality is the regional governing administration of Nordland, Norway. The main responsibilities of the county municipality includes the running of 17 upper secondary schools, with 9,500 pupils. It administrates county roadways, public transport, dental care, culture and...

, have chosen to create a county cabinet (fylkesråd) that functions as the head of the executive branch of the county municipalities duties. The cabinet is led by the Chairman of the County Cabinet (fylkesrådsleder). The head if the administration is the County Executive (fylkesrådmann).

History

The predecessor of the county municipality, the Amtkommune, was established in 1837 when the municipal independence
Formannskapsdistrikt
Formannskapsdistrikt was the name for a Norwegian local self-government districts put into force in 1838. This system of municipality was created in a bill approved by the Storting and signed into law by King Carl Johan on 14 January 1837...

 was established. Development of this institution was slow until after 1945, when development accelerated, especially in the 1970s when a number of major reforms were introduced. Before 1964, the members of the county council were appointed by the County Governor
County Governor
County Governor is a Norwegian government agency represented in 18 of the Norwegian counties responsible for a number of supervision and management duties. The Governor is the representative of the King and Government of Norway in each county, functioning as the connection between the state and...

, but in 1964 the first indirect elections for the county council were held, when each municipality council was granted the right to appoint members in proportion to their number of residents. In 1976 the County Governor and county municipality were split, and the elected councils introduced, at the same time the Governor was the appointed state representative in the county, with supervisory responsibilities related to the municipalities, and other regulatory tasks.

From January 1, 2002 the hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

s and other specialist health care services provided by the county municipalities were transferred to the Regional Health Authorities
Regional Health Authority
A regional health authority is a state enterprise responsible for specialist healthcare in one of four regions of Norway. Responsibilities of the RHFs include patient treamtment, education of medical staff, research and training of patients and relatives...

. In the period 2005-2009 there is work considering the division of tasks between the municipalities and the county municipalities, and the county municipalities and the county governors. One suggestion includes merging the 19 counties to about ten regions, that will include certain tasks administrated by the governors at present.
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