Democratic government is not new in Norway. Even as the Vikings
were marauding the continent, the British Isles, and -- as is now fairly
well established -- the coast of North America, primitive lawgiving
institutions were being developed. These assemblies or, as they are
called in Norwegian, tinger, served as the model not only for the
Norwegian parliament (Storting), but also for the parliament of Ice-
land (Alting).

Although the beginnings of Norwegian democracy can be traced to
the middle ages, the modern ideological and institutional structure had
their origins in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth cen-
turies. The absence of a native nobility and the presence of a vigorous,
if not well organized, agrarian group enabled the government estab-
lished by the Constitution of 1814 to assume a degree of independence
in the newly formed Norwegian-Swedish Union which finally led to
responsible parliamentarism in 1884.

During the last years of the Dano-Norwegian Union and through-
out the period from 1814 to 1905 while Norway was united with
Sweden under a common king, nationalism, as well as democracy,
became increasingly strong. And in present-day Norway both remain
vigorous. Occasionally one is struck by certain conflicts in modern
Norway, e.g., the conflict between the extremes of nationalism and
the inevitability, due to location and resources, of a high degree of
dependence upon other states. Also one discovers an intense type of
individualism growing initially out of the very nature of the topog-
raphy, but this has been tempered by well organized cooperative
ventures. Running through all of these -- nationalism, individualism,
and cooperation -- is the thread of democracy.

Much of the institutional fabric and many of the procedural arrange-
ments of Norwegian democracy are not dissimilar from those found
in other Western countries, particularly the United Kingdom. But
certain institutions, like the parliament (Storting), are unique. And
the combination of judicial review and separation of powers with
cabinet government has given the Norwegian government a character
unlike that found either in the United Kingdom or the United States.

The treatment of Norwegian democracy that follows is reasonably
traditional. Introductory background chapters are followed by de-
scriptions of the institutions and practices associated with the legis-
lative, executive, administrative, and judicial functions of the national

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