LA Business Daily
What is the Government of Norway like and how does this affect the population?
I know that Norway is a constitutional Monarchy, but is this like the U.K, where the royal family are effectively figureheads, or do the monarchy of Norway retain power? So, how do the leaders of Norway run their country, how does the style of government influence the people, how do the people influence their rulers, how involved are the Norwegian people in politics, how close is Norway to the U.K model of local government, is industry chiefly nationalized or in private hands, and what are class relations like in Norway? Many questions there, really, but any answers are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Public Comments
- The Monarch, like the UK is a figurehead and the real power rests with the Prime minister and the government. One major difference is that the make up is more akin to the American system than the British. There is an executive made up of the Prime minister and Government Ministers (regjering). These do not sit in the legislature (storting) which is the equivalent of parliament. There is also a Judicial branch (the courts) and these are again independent, unlike in the UK where they sit as part of the legislature. The government is selected by obtaining a majority in the Storting, or at least the support of the Storting, so unlike the US the government almost always has the support of the legislature, in this way it's more like the UK. In general there tend to be coalition governments due to the electoral system which is based on proportional representation from the Fylker level (they're the equivalent of the counties in the UK). The number of seats in each Fylke is based on the population and land size, giving slightly more weight to the rural areas and the North, though this doesn't result in more say due to the concentration of population in 4-6 areas. As the country is small all politics tend to be local. The prime minister and other government ministers regularly go into the news studios to be interviewed on the main news, far more than in the UK. It's easy to get in touch with politicians, in fact they give you a contact number for the prime ministers office, Jens Stoltenberg, the Prime Minister is on Twitter (along with a large number of the ministers and opposition leaders). The government is a major player in industry, owning controlling interest in the 3 largest companies (Statoil, telenor and DnB NOR), in total it owns around 28% of the share value on the Oslo stock exchange, and that's a major difference, the industries are publicly traded, not owned in the "nationalised" since that the UK government has tended to do. In terms of class relations the key measure of equality is the Gini coefficient, where a measure of 0 is perfect equality and 100 is absolute inequality. Norway (according to the UN is the 5th most equal country with a coefficient of 25.8, the UK is around 48th with a coefficient of 36. In effect that means there is little class divide, no inherited place in society. Outside of the Royal family there is no aristocracy, no lords and ladies. This was due to the collapse of Norwegian society in the middle ages with the black death and a very strong social society ever since it became fully independent in 1905. The UK could learn a lot from Norway. Take North Sea Oil as an example. Norway set up a state fund (the state pension fund) and returns income from the oil to that, investing it outside of Norway to prevent overheating the economy. The UK took the revenue and Maggie used it for class struggle to beat the unions by funding unemployment. Norway treated it as a shred national resource, the UK auctioned it off to the highest bidder and then frittered away the money.
