The administration has conquered the land and the tickets

Halldór Armand’s column in Sunndagsmogganum has truly hit the mark, as he talks about a system that is growing over us. Halldór pretends that this is because Icelanders believe that the rickety body is because we feel the need to prove to the rest of the world that we are not cottage farmers but a nation among nations. The result, however, is bittersweet.

The superstructure is largely to be a nation among nations, not to prove anything.

“How can almost 400,000 people, a community the size of an average neighborhood in a European city, run its own currency and central bank, a presidency and a number of ministries, countless state institutions and a formidable public system on two levels of government? Have we ever asked if our society is of the nature to need all this? We live in a scenario of a large state,” Halldór Armand says, among other things, in his column.

Many are of the opinion that Iceland should not have a central bank and an independent currency. In fact, the Central Bank also took over the tasks of the Financial Supervisory Authority. The presidency does not cost much as a share of government revenue/expenses and many feel it serves an important role as a “safety valve”. Many people probably feel that the position proved itself during the Icesave mess, but it is not impossible to implement this position differently.

People are constantly filling a number of ministries and government agencies. I’m not necessarily sure that they need to be reduced. Efficiency can be achieved, for example, through infrastructure joint ventures. For example, the Cabinet has started running various things for the ministries instead of them running their own systems. It is not possible to carry out very different tasks by the same person without them being handled poorly, and so it is often necessary to make sure that people do not wear many hats and are responsible for, for example, implementation, monitoring and resolution of complaints.

We have two administrative systems because otherwise the whole country would be manually controlled from Lækjargatu. Do you want a bridge on Breiðamerkursandi? You need to speak directly to a minister who has never been there and knows nothing about the situation. Somehow I get the impression that Halldór Armand wants to go back to the Landshöfðingja era, but without the county officials and commissioners.

The system expands

He points out that in the capital area there are 79 elected representatives in seven different municipalities. “But today the administration has more or less subjugated society. It’s as if nothing is irrelevant to it; the system expands because it produces its own importance.”

Some of these municipalities could well be combined without going so far as to destroy local democracy. I don’t know if it is anarchism or some anti-democratic ideology that Halldór Armand supports. The “system” itself is something that needs to be constantly changing. I think the most important thing is to stop running the government with credit, then we will see what we can afford and what we can’t.