ABSTRACT
Parliament’s handling last year of the government’s White Paper on Norwegian policies on developing countries (see The Reality of Aid 1996) was encouraging. Again it turned out that elected Members of Parliament, sensible to the attitudes of youth and solidarity movements, tend to be more responsive to the claims of the South than are ministers and bureaucrats. The parliamentary group of the governing Labour Party formed an ad hoc alliance with the Center Party, the Christian People’s Party and the Socialist People’s Party - all progressive on North-South issues. A solid parliamentary majority told the minority government to improve its aid policies. If the intentions of the parliamentary majority are followed up through practical policies, it will mean a definite strengthening of the poverty focus and the solidarity character of Norwegian development aid.
