The Oxford Handbook of Norwegian Politics provides a comprehensive examination of Norway's political institutions, politics, public policy-making, and international relations.
As the introductory chapter highlights, Norway has traditionally been characterized as a stable, homogeneous, corporatist, and consensus-oriented democracy. At the same time, it is well established that many of the country's distinctive features have been challenged and have perhaps declined in recent decades. Norway has evolved in the face of rapid economic growth, significant government access to massive oil revenues, deindustrialization, public sector expansion, increasing cultural pluralism and economic inequality, as well as growing party system fragmentation and the decline of the once-dominant social democratic party. This Handbook gives readers an updated account of major political developments and what characterizes Norway's politics compared to other countries in Scandinavia and beyond.
The diverse set of authors, selected for their in-depth knowledge and extensive expertise, offer valuable insights into the different aspects of Norwegian politics. Each chapter offers foundational knowledge about the present Norwegian system while presenting state-of-the-art overviews of key issues and findings drawn from the most relevant research in the respective fields. The authors also provide original analyses of more specialized topics or trace historical developments and overarching trends. With over seventy contributors and written in an accessible manner, this Handbook is an indispensable resource for understanding Norwegian politics.
Kristoffer Kolltveit, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Elin Haugsgjerd Allern, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer, Professor of Political Science, University of Oslo and Professor of War Studies, King´s College London, Bjørn Erik Rasch, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo
Kristoffer Kolltveit is Professor in Political Science at the University of Oslo. His research focuses on ministers and cabinet-decision-making, central administration, and political communication. His work has been published in many outlets including
International Journal of Press/Politics,
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and
Party Politics.
Elin Haugsgjerd Allern is Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo. Her research interests include political parties, interest groups, political representation, and public policy-making. She has published multiple books, including
Left-of-Centre Parties and Trade Unions in the Twenty-First Century (OUP, 2017, edited with Tim Bale), and numerous articles in different outlets including
Party Politics,
Journal of European Public Policy, and
European Journal of Political Research.
Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer is Professor of War Studies at King's College London and Professor of Political Science at the University of Oslo. She is the founding director of the Oslo Nuclear Project. Her work has been published in numerous outlets including
International Security,
The Middle East Journal,
The New York Times (online), and
International Herald Tribune, and in her book
Unclear Physics: Why Iraq and Libya Failed to Build Nuclear Weapons (Cornell University Press, 2016).
Bjørn Erik Rasch is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo. He has published fifteen books as (co)author or (co)editor and numerous journal articles. Rasch was a member of a Constitutional Commission appointed by the Norwegian Parliament in 2003 to modernize the Norwegian Court of Impeachment and a committee who designed a new electoral system for the Sami Parliament in Northern Norway (the Sami Act).
