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Yeah, you have to know a few things about European politics... Legolas Send a noteboard - 03/03/2012 11:49:44 PM
The wife did find that article, I think, because I remember her mentioning the king has no vote (which I still think is kind of lame, since all he does is appoint a nominated PM; still not clear on just how much right of refusal he has.)

I would guess very few if any. There are subtle differences between the various European monarchies in terms of how much power and/or influence the monarchs have, but I don't remember Norway being among the ones where they have more power.

I'm not sure if I told you this story before, but in Belgium, in the early nineties, parliament passed a law legalizing abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, and under some circumstances thereafter. Our king at the time was strongly Catholic and deeply opposed to abortion (it didn't help that he and the queen were unable to have children, and heartbroken over it), so he adamantly refused to sign the law, despite not exactly having any right to refuse. Parliament solved the problem in the end by essentially deposing him for a day, passing the law and then reinstating him. That's hardly something you can do for appointing a PM, though...

Good news and good news for me. Not only does the federal government contain local representation, it goes out of its way to do so. Further, the parliamentary structure resembles the intent if not form of Americas to a degree somewhat eerie. Rather than preferring our system for offering more local representation, I am more inclined to consider what we could steal from Norway toward that goal (particuarly given how disconnected DC is from everywhere else these days.)

Like I said, nearly all Western democracies have constituencies like that, which almost inevitably favours regions with low population even if you don't have a system like Norway's (e.g. Canada, which has several provinces/territories with barely 30-40k of inhabitants, but obviously they can hardly avoid giving them a single seat at least, whereas Ontario and Quebec have far more inhabitants per seat than that).

It also favours political stability in the sense that it makes it less likely to have huge numbers of different political parties, and less likely to have huge differences in seat results between an election and the next, even if the popular vote difference is huge. There's a direct and obvious correlation between the average amount of seats per constituency and the amount of (viable) parties a country has. I'm really not a big fan of single seat constituencies, but the Dutch/Israeli other extreme hasn't exactly been proving its worth of late either, so something inbetween is probably best, alright.
Unless Norway is completely inverted compared to America (and this is far from the first time I have noticed eerily similarities) I think right wing claims under-representing Oslo disenfranchises them are more like excuses. By and large, the left tends to support and the right oppose the welfare state all but designed for large and dense urban areas, and education, with its liberalizing influence, is less vital in rural ones. It is hard to imagine how increasing representation in the metropolitan area that contains about 25% of the country would do anything but hurt the right.

I know very little about Norwegian politics so I could well be off on a few points, but based on my knowledge of European politics in general, I think you're wrong. What you have to keep in mind is the particularities of the extreme right, and the distinction between the extreme right and the traditional right. The European far right parties, by and large, have mostly claimed the votes of the left, not of the right: the working poor, the lower-educated city folk. As it happens I read about the Flemish extreme right party's new economic policies just yesterday: they are attacking the more mainstream right for being too business-friendly and not defending the interest of the average Joe enough. The European far right is moderately right at best on economic issues, and in some cases perhaps even left-wing (always populist, but I don't think that surprises anyone...). The one far-right aspect they all have in common is their anti-immigrant nationalism, and then most of them (but not all, just look at the Netherlands) are rather conservative on social issues as well. But not economic ones.

Switzerland is an interesting example. Switzerland has an unique and fascinating political structure to begin with, with a seven-man government with a yearly rotating presidency among them, which is traditionally made up of all the major parties - two each of the three biggest ones, one for the fourth. That fourth party (the Swiss People's Party) was traditionally the kind of conservative rural party that you describe above; however, as Switzerland saw increasing numbers of immigrants and similar issues to the rest of Europe, primarily in the cities, the party shifted to become an anti-immigrant far-right party, gaining votes in the process until a second ministry seat could no longer be denied them (considering how they had become the largest party by far). However, the conservative rural branch of the party felt completely overlooked and increasingly unsatisfied with the borderline racism of their party leader. Then the other parties, in a brilliant if rather dirty surprise move, managed to get a member of the rural branch elected to the vacant ministry, instead of the party leader who was the designated candidate. The result was that the SPP broke in two, the rural branch electing to create a new party but maintaining its newly appointed ministry seat (and for a while even both of the old party's two seats). The SPP is still the largest party of the country, though - and even more predominantly urban in its voters now, obviously. The new rural party is, despite holding one of the seven government seats (and indeed the rotating presidency, this year), a small party with just over 5% of the vote.

Wow, I think I might actually be writing a longer reply here than your original post... shocking. To move back in the direction of relevance and summarize: the European far-right is indeed predominantly an urban phenomenon, though over time they have certainly grown to the point where they have a presence in rural areas as well. The conservative rural votes that you talk about do exist, but are generally solidly in the hands of the mainstream right and/or Christian-Democratic parties, or else small separate parties, like in the Swiss case I mentioned. In Norway's case they seem to be mostly in the hands of the Centre Party, based on a cursory look.
I could be projecting my American perspective too much though; as I understand it, the Progress Party (which I would associate with the recently resurrected "progressive" label America used a century ago) is the far right, the Right Party is moderate and only Labor is the mainstream left party I would expect it to be. With seven parties in Stortinget compared with the three to which I am accustomed (one of which is socialist Bernie Sanders' single seat) my frame of reference is obviously very foreign. Of course, since I will never be able to vote here I guess it does not matter. :P

That's not even that much - the Netherlands have ten, Belgium had eleven until the last elections (now nine) though we're a special case and don't really count, Israel has thirteen.
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Now That Romney Is Officially the Republican Presidential Nominee: Pick the President! - 29/02/2012 08:29:02 PM 1260 Views
I have never understood the point of the Electoral College. - 29/02/2012 11:39:11 PM 702 Views
You don't think like a politician then - 01/03/2012 12:38:36 AM 744 Views
I also have not seen most of that mentioned in the popular vs. electoral debate. - 01/03/2012 02:34:31 PM 630 Views
what about one vote one value? - 02/03/2012 11:51:32 PM 714 Views
That has not really changed. - 03/03/2012 03:30:34 AM 899 Views
a bit simplistic and unrealistic - 02/03/2012 11:44:02 PM 672 Views
When illustrating a point realism is not required and simplicity is a plus - 03/03/2012 03:04:26 AM 688 Views
I have a couple quibbles. - 03/03/2012 05:23:46 AM 716 Views
Oh, certainly, I'm over-generalizing but I was already getting long-winded - 03/03/2012 06:52:04 AM 676 Views
I hate when people do that. - 05/03/2012 09:49:36 AM 658 Views
What a bunch of waffle! - 03/03/2012 10:47:19 AM 820 Views
First you complain of simplicity then of my lack of brevity? - 03/03/2012 11:18:11 AM 607 Views
A simplistic argument doesn't mean it's brief *NM* - 03/03/2012 09:55:51 PM 336 Views
Also I don't like this refrain that implies only the POTUS vote matters - 03/03/2012 03:29:58 AM 833 Views
IMHO, parliaments choosing prime ministers is LESS democratic than the electoral college. - 03/03/2012 05:57:41 AM 633 Views
Re: IMHO, parliaments choosing prime ministers is LESS democratic than the electoral college. - 03/03/2012 07:02:30 AM 670 Views
*is learning* - 04/03/2012 09:49:42 PM 661 Views
Re: *is learning* - 04/03/2012 09:56:16 PM 675 Views
To the extent I can (yet again) claim to speak for Europeans... - 04/03/2012 10:33:01 PM 651 Views
I've fairly limited exposure and that from some years back - 04/03/2012 11:35:12 PM 712 Views
Re: *is learning* - 05/03/2012 12:08:08 AM 715 Views
You could imitate the French. - 07/03/2012 10:40:16 PM 649 Views
That seems... unlikely.... - 08/03/2012 03:03:54 PM 650 Views
I don't know much about Norwegian politics, but you seem to be wrong. - 03/03/2012 06:18:08 PM 689 Views
Do you happen to have that link, please? - 03/03/2012 06:46:31 PM 566 Views
Sure. - 03/03/2012 06:58:07 PM 740 Views
Guess we did not read far enough. - 03/03/2012 10:38:07 PM 683 Views
Yeah, you have to know a few things about European politics... - 03/03/2012 11:49:44 PM 887 Views
Re: Yeah, you have to know a few things about European politics... - 05/03/2012 06:56:24 AM 683 Views
Fascinating. - 05/03/2012 10:52:32 PM 668 Views
Re: Yeah, you have to know a few things about European politics... - 08/03/2012 07:11:12 PM 634 Views
Many valid reasons, including those Isaac cited. - 02/03/2012 02:26:37 AM 784 Views
Most states are ignored anyway - 02/03/2012 11:56:12 PM 860 Views
Why would we do something logical? Dude, you're utterly ridiculous. *NM* - 05/03/2012 04:53:38 PM 372 Views
I'm kind of sad- does this mean Santorum won't be providing wonderful sound bites anymore? - 01/03/2012 02:22:31 PM 624 Views
Nothing has shut him up yet, why should this? *NM* - 01/03/2012 05:27:30 PM 355 Views
Maybe he'll pull a Palin and go touring around the country *NM* - 01/03/2012 07:06:02 PM 323 Views
No, it probably means we will get more and worse than ever. - 01/03/2012 11:25:25 PM 803 Views
Romney or Obama, either way, America loses. *NM* - 02/03/2012 01:10:26 AM 448 Views
Hard to dispute that either; six of one, half a dozen of the other. - 02/03/2012 01:38:07 AM 605 Views
Couldn't agree more *NM* - 02/03/2012 06:52:51 PM 363 Views
It reminds me of when Denver backed into the NFL playoffs. - 02/03/2012 09:36:13 PM 599 Views
I'd agree hope and change was extremely unrealistic - 02/03/2012 11:58:57 PM 603 Views
Romney is damaged - 02/03/2012 11:27:33 PM 618 Views
Obama is rather damaged also; it will probably come down to FL and OH, yet again. - 03/03/2012 02:23:53 AM 724 Views
I'm hoping for Rubio as VP... then FL probably won't matter - 03/03/2012 04:28:08 AM 605 Views
You should put that on your license plates. - 03/03/2012 06:41:34 AM 728 Views
Re: You should put that on your license plates. - 03/03/2012 06:51:00 AM 676 Views
Ax murderers are people, too! - 04/03/2012 08:23:41 PM 629 Views
And what are you basing all of this on? - 03/03/2012 09:54:06 PM 718 Views
The closeness of several states when Obama was far more popular, and UTs heavily Mormon neighbors. - 03/03/2012 11:44:06 PM 673 Views
Wrong - 04/03/2012 08:08:56 AM 790 Views
Higher turnout magnifies the Mormon effect. - 04/03/2012 08:08:09 PM 829 Views
Your reasoning is flawed and if you can't see it there is no hope for you - 05/03/2012 11:39:04 PM 735 Views
Yeah, I think we had that conversation already, several times, in fact. - 07/03/2012 05:36:45 AM 571 Views
Do you have any knowledge of statistics at all? - 07/03/2012 09:04:15 PM 735 Views
I hate this message board - 07/03/2012 09:06:30 PM 530 Views
Some, though it is far from exhaustive. - 08/03/2012 02:29:06 PM 711 Views

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