Journal Articles

Trangbæk, A. (Forthcoming 2026). Functional Politicization in Practice. From responsive competence to reflexive functional politicization.
Public Administration Review. Accepted. Online first coming soon.

This study addresses how senior civil servants navigate the tension between responsiveness and competence through functional politicization. Based on rich observational data (300 hours) and interview material (42 interviews), the article theorizes how senior civil servants navigate this tension by providing advice that integrates political considerations with professional technical knowledge to challenge the minister, provide alternative solutions, and clarify consequences. I call this practice reflexive functional politicization and hereby contribute to the literature on politicization by conceptualizing how politicization is practiced by civil servants in action. Their practice is motivated by the conviction that true neutrality is rare or nonexistent and thus that they must instead strike a balance between political responsiveness and technical competence.

Trangbæk, A., van Dorp, E.J., 't Hart, P., & Salomonsen, H.H. (2026). Unwritten Rules of the Game in Danish and Dutch Core Executives.
Governance. 

What makes ministers and senior civil servants survive, or even, thrive in the political-administrative context they are a part of? Based upon a multi-sited ethnography this article identifies, the unwritten rules of the game that elite political and administrative actors in the Danish and Dutch core executives adhere to. We analyse Danish and Dutch government elites’ beliefs about how to survive and thrive at the apex of executive government. We ground our analysis in core executive research and seek to advance our understanding of the beliefs and practices that shape the behaviour of government elites. Our decentred approach to qualitative inquiry allows us to identify a high degree of overlap between how Danish and Dutch core executive actors understand the unwritten rules of the systems they inhabit. This suggests that notwithstanding formal structural differences between core executive systems, they perhaps differ significantly less in practice, in that the beliefs and practices of ministers and senior public servants are more alike than classic accounts would suggest. 

Trangbæk, A. (2023). Does the cradle of power exist? Sequence analysis of top bureaucrats' career trajectories.
Governance, 36(2), 609-627. 

Top bureaucrats are the nexus between politics and administration. Besides being the chief operating officer of the ministry, they are technical experts and political advisors to the minister. This makes them central actors in bureaucratic studies. Despite their powerful position, few have studied their path to power. Utilizing sequence analysis, I analyze the career trajectories of permanent secretaries, providing a rich measure of career paths. Denmark is used as a case of a European parliamentary system, and a novel dataset has been collected containing career information on permanent secretaries from 1925 to 2020. The analysis reveals five ideal-typical career paths and illustrates how career trajectories have become more diverse over time. Fewer top bureaucrats are rising through the ranks within a single ministry; instead, there has been an increase in inter-ministerial shifts and in experience providing political craft. Finally, the position is becoming a steppingstone rather than the final position. 

Books

Trangbæk, A. (Planned fall 2026). Mellem magt og ministre: Embedsværket indefra.
Forlaget Klim. Written in Danish.

Description forthcoming.

Trangbæk, A. (2021). Life at the top: Understanding top bureaucrats’ roles as the link between politics and administration.
Forlaget Politica. 

Top civil servants act in the nexus between bureaucracy and politics. They connect the political and the administrative levels and are thus close collaborators of both politicians and civil servants. When they provide advice and assist their minister, they influence decisions and thereby society and citizens’ everyday life. Although top civil servants are ubiquitous in politics, we know little about their work life. This dissertation therefore sets out to explore their practices and roles. It focuses on the highest-ranking civil servants in Denmark – permanent secretaries – and draws on theories about top civil servants’ roles, behavior and skills. Using an abductive logic of inquiry, the author shadows eight permanent secretaries and interviews permanent secretaries, ministers and heads of section. The analysis is divided into four parts investigating the imperatives of permanent secretaries and their relations upwards, downwards and outwards. The dissertation provides a nuanced perspective on what permanent secretaries actually do. It illustrates how they navigate between several practices and roles, and points to five characteristic practices: cohering, connecting, coordinating, delegating and protecting along with three overall roles: being the minister’s right hand, advisor and CEO of the ministry. Furthermore, the dissertation contributes to the theoretical debate about top civil servants by stating that permanent secretaries resemble stewards more than agents and that there seems to be a continuously changing relation between top civil servants and politicians.

Book chapters

Trangbæk, A., Clausen, M., & Cecchini, M. (2025). Etnografiske undersøgelser.
In Andersen, L. B., Hansen, K. M, & Cecchini, M. (ed.), Metoder i Statskundskab (4 ed., pp. 435-444). Hans Reitzels Forlag.

The chapter "Ethnographic Methods" is a new addition to the Danish coursebook Methods in Political Science. It introduces ethnographic methods, explaining what they are and the types of research questions they are particularly well-suited to address. This is a hands-on chapter that provides practical guidance on preparing for fieldwork, including how to define the field and gain access. It then explores key considerations during fieldwork, such as different types of observations, the various roles a researcher can take, and the process of transforming jottings into field notes. The chapter also covers strategies for exiting the field. Finally, it delves into important reflections on integrity, ethics, and the emotional aspects of conducting ethnographic research.

Bækgaard, M., Jakobsen, M. L., & Trangbæk, A. (2024). Bureaukrati, hierarki og embedsrollen.
In J. Blom-Hansen, P. M. Christiansen, T. Pallesen, & S. Serritzlew (ed.), Offentlig forvaltning: et politologisk perspektiv (3 ed., pp. 29-52). Hans Reitzels Forlag. 

The chapter "Bureaucracy, Hierarchy, and the Role of the Civil Servant" is an updated chapter in the Danish coursebook Public Administration: A Political Science Perspective. It explores the roles of civil servants, linking them to traditional Weberian perspectives while incorporating discussions on the politicization of the civil service.
The chapter also examines the inner workings of the civil service, offering insights into hierarchy and organizational dynamics, providing a nuanced understanding of how bureaucracies function in practice.

Trangbæk, A., & Cecchini, M. (2023). Using the interpretivist methodology.
In R. Shaw (ed.), Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers (pp. 123-136). Edward Elgar Publishing. 

The chapter "Using the interpretivist methodology" is a part of the new international Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers. In the chapter, we argue that there is a potential for advancing the study of ministerial advisers through interpretivist research. We show how interpretivist research can contibute to the study of ministerial advisers by asking questions focused on meaning-making and by employing interpretivist approaches. We outline and discuss various research designs, data generation methods, anlaysis and presentation of data in interpretivist research.

Salomonsen, H. H., & Trangbæk, A. (2022). The Danish Core Executive: From ‘Duopoly’ to ‘Monopoly’?
In K. Kolltveit & R. Shaw (ed.), Core Executives in a Comparative Perspective: Governing in Complex Times (pp. 235-254). Palgrave Macmillan.

With a history of primarily minority coalition governments, the Danish core executive has for many years been managed and coordinated via a duopoly including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, as well as their respective ministries and permanent secretaries. However, with the recent change to a minority single party government headed by a prime minister wishing for and able to centralise power in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Danish core executive is changing. The change reflects a move towards a core executive in which prime ministerial dominance in the management and coordination across the cabinet becomes a more suitable description. However, the prominent role played by permanent and responsive senior civil servants in government coordination appears to have remained unchanged. This change in the Danish core executive still ‘sits well’ with the framework of ‘court politics’, pointing to the importance of situated agents—in this case a prime minister—able to make the most of the institutional resources available at the PMO, as well as able to reinterpret the traditions and institutions of cabinet coordination in Danish governments in order to ensure government coordination as well as crisis responses in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Reports and Essays