Hanne Marthe Narud

Are Party Activists the Party Extremists? The Structure of Opinion in Political Parties

In re-examining May’s law of curvilinear disparity, this article analyzes the structure of opinion of political parties. May suggests that voters, party leaders and party activists have diierent incentives to participate in politics, and therefore voters and leaders have more moderate positions on issues than party activists. This article is based on the extensions of May’s law made by Kitschelt, who argues that curvilinear disparities, although not general phenomena, are bound to occur in speci¢c circumstances. We have focused on the level of cleavage con£ict in the system, the variable that Kitschelt himself found to be critical for explaining party radicalism among sub-leaders. Using the Norwegian multiparty system as a test case, we propose that radicalism among party activists is conditioned by the relative saliency of diierent policy dimensions. The empirical analysis, which is based on surveys of MPs, party members and voters in connection with the general election of 1993, gives very little support to our proposition.

Issue saliency, policy distances and coalition bargaining

This article addresses the problem of policy as a constraint for coalition bargaining. Two questions are posed: How fruitful are uni‐dimensional models for the analysis of coalition bargaining in multiparty systems? And how much do we gain by using a multidimensional approach? The questions are examined empirically by applying various sets of ten‐point issue scales. The Norwegian system is used as a case. The analysis indicates that a uni‐dimensional approach contributes notably to the understanding of coalition bargaining in the system. However, as the parties are divided along several traditional cleavages, considerable sophistication can be gained by adding more dimensions to the model.

Party Governance and Party Democracy

This chapter introduces the concepts of party democracy and party government. First, it outlines which roles have been ascribed to political parties in the extant literature, focusing on the externally directed behavior of parties in the main areas where political competition plays out. It then highlights the contributions of the individual chapters of this volume that address how political parties perform within the existing institutional frameworks, and describes how they each contribute to an analytical and empirical understanding of party democracy and party government in today’s democracies. Last, it presents the central advances in research on party government in the contributions of Kaare Strom.

A more fragile chain of governance in Norway

Abstract Although in practice Norway has been a parliamentary democracy since 1884 its political institutions differ in a number of ways from the typical parliamentary model. Among its peculiar features is a lack of parliamentary dissolution powers and a set of informal and permissive cabinet formation rules which have contributed to Norways high and increasing frequency of minority governments. This article explores the distinctive features of the democratic chain of delegation and accountability, from voters to ultimate policy-makers, in Norway. It focuses on three increasingly problematic aspects of this chain of delegation: (1) the growing constraints on popular sovereignty due to judicialisation and Europeanisation, (2) the declining importance of parties as vehicles of democratic delegation, and (3) most specifically the Norwegian inclination towards minority government and its consequences. The increasingly fragile minority governments since the 1980s have complicated prospective as well as retrospective accountability in Norway.

The Norwegian Storting: ``People's Parliament" or Coop for ``Political Broilers"?

The article is concerned with the Norwegian Storting and the composition of its MPs over the last 60 years. It asks whether a professionalization of the legislative body has taken place, and then discusses it in terms of social, economic and demographic backgrounds. To what extent has there been a replacement of certain groups, so that some are represented whereas others are falling out? How representative are the elected representatives for the population at large? In analyzing these questions, the article demonstrates how central features of the recruitment system impact the composition of the political elite.

Ascent of the Young, the Smart, and the Professional: Norway’s Parliamentary Elite in Comparative Perspective 1

[Abstract A main feature of Norway’s parliamentary elite in recent decades has been its dramatically increasing proportion of young, highly educated, and professional politicians – MPs whose previous careers have been almost wholly in party work. Whether this trend is connected to the financial support parties receive from the Norwegian state is an interesting question because state support has increased and enabled parties to hire more people to work for them. Consequently, the pool from which professional politicians can be recruited to parliament has expanded. There are, however, other important bases of parliamentary elite circulation in Norway: quotas for female candidates and MPs in some parties; geographic representation; strong controls on candidate selection by county and local party branches. I assess these patterns longitudinally in parliamentary elections during the past 60 years and comparatively as regards relevant changes in other Nordic parliaments., AbstractA main feature of Norway’s parliamentary elite in recent decades has been its dramatically increasing proportion of young, highly educated, and professional politicians - MPs whose previous careers have been almost wholly in party work. Whether this trend is connected to the financial support parties receive from the Norwegian state is an interesting question because state support has increased and enabled parties to hire more people to work for them. Consequently, the pool from which professional politicians can be recruited to parliament has expanded. There are, however, other important bases of parliamentary elite circulation in Norway: quotas for female candidates and MPs in some parties; geographic representation; strong controls on candidate selection by county and local party branches. I assess these patterns longitudinally in parliamentary elections during the past 60 years and comparatively as regards relevant changes in other Nordic parliaments.]