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The Involvement of Interests Groups in Norwegian Electoral Politics

Tuesday 04 March 2008

A large number of the Norwegian interest organizations took part in the electoral process in 2005, according to a new article by Elin H. Allern and Jo Saglie.

In "Between Electioneering and ‘Politics as Usual’: The Involvement of Interests Groups in Norwegian Electoral Politics" Elin H. Allern and Jo Saglie explore the involvement of organized interest groups in Norwegian electoral politics, by means of an in-depth study of the 2005 general election. In this way, they throw light on the hypothesis that non-party actors play a significant role in contemporary election campaigns.

Their study includes a sample of organizations engaged in welfare policy, ranging from the major industry and labour market organizations to humanitarian organizations and groups organizing various clients of the welfare state.

Allern and Saglie observe that a large number of the Norwegian interest organizations studied here took part in the electoral process in 2005. Not only were groups with traditional links to parties involved, but a wide range of non-partisan groups were active. Many presented "voters’ guides" and promoted issues in the public sphere.

The organizations engaged mostly independent of political parties, and most interest groups hesitated about financially supporting or endorsing a specific party. Moreover, we show that many interest groups were involved in electoral politics as lobbyists, apparently without trying to influence the election result.

Although we cannot compare present and past interest group activity systematically, Allern and Saglie writes, a similar study from the 1957 campaign suggests that the election campaign has become a salient issue in more organizations since the Second World War. Also, labor and industry-affiliated interest groups seem to engage in a wider range of electoral activities than they once used to. However, the observed changes should not be exaggerated. In conlusion, we argue that the outcome may not necessarily be something new, but in some senses rather indicate a return to the time before the “freezing” of national party system in the 1920s.

The article is published in:
David Farrell og Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck (red.), Non-Party Actors in Electoral Politics: The Role of Interest Groups and Independent Citizens in Contemporary Election Campaigns. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2008.