Mapping the Norwegian Political Space

Abstract

This research note reports the results of an expert survey on party positions in Norway in 1998. This was a partial replication of the 1989 survey conducted by Laver and Hunt (1992). The survey results are used to describe important aspects of Norwegian party competition, including issue ownership and the dimensionality of the Norwegian political space. These results indicate that important elements of the centre-periphery cleavage are now much more aligned with the overall left-right dimension than was the case in 1989. The convergence of positions of the Socialist Left and Center parties is not surprising, given the extensive cooperation between them during the 1994 campaign debate on EU membership. The emphasis on non-material values in the 1997 campaign further contributed to the importance of moral issues for the second dimension in Norwegian politics. The mismatch between traditional party alliances and current party positions has made the process of government formation quite problematic.