ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Norway profiles of longstanding democracies and of the European Union, and provides essential detail on history, electoral system, political parties and cleavages, and governments. Norway was under Danish rule for several centuries; in 1814, this was replaced with a union with Sweden under Swedish control. Norway uses a party list proportional representation electoral system, with 19 multi-member districts. Many of the political parties in Norway tend to be less conservative than in other countries, with there being broad agreement on maintaining the welfare state and the role of the government in the economy. The Communist Party of Norway was founded in 1923 out of a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. The Norwegian Labour Party was traditionally the country’s “natural party of government” – initially this was through the outright predominance which came from winning some straight majorities from 1945 through 1957.
