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Majority and Minority Governments (theory):
Before we examine the history of Norwegian governments, as also comparing Sweden, Denmark and Norway’s majority and minority tendencies, we shall begin by describing the parameters of government formation and coalition government. ... A narrow interpretation of the term would mean that the parliamentary majority must demonstrate its declared support for the government at any given time.
This variant, usually refered to as positive parliamentarism, would mean that only majority governments could be considered parliamentarian. ... It means that there would always be a legislative majority for one of these groups. ... And in multi-party systems, where there are more parties gain parliamentary representation, the possibility always exists that no party alone will command a parliamentary majority. ... Strøm, that possibility has become the rule, rather than the exception, in the majority of the world’s parliamentary systems. ...
Parliamentary governments also face the requirement of effectiveness they must regularly be able to muster legislative majorities for their legislative and budgetary bills, their appointments.
Parties which have lost substantially at an election may be able to remain in power if the arithmetical majority in parliament allows them to do so. ...
Usually, there are four main types of government: single-party majority, coalition majority, single-party minority and coalition minority. (Multiparty coalitions – which require public and formal agreements between parties and a sharing of cabinet seats – are far less common in Norway than minority governments. ... But in the multi-party systems, however, government formation is normally not an automatic response to electoral results, especially if the election results in a minority situation, where no party alone commands a legislative majority. ...
Majority government we can define as any cabinet that meets all appropriate constitutional requirements and that is composed of persons acting as representatives of political parties or parliamentary groups that collectively control no less than one half of all seats in the national legislature, or that chamber of the legislature to which the cabinet is constitutionally responsible. Analyzing strategies of majority building, Kaare Strøm mention two dimensions:
• The consistency of the membership of the government’s legislative coalition,
• The policy content of government concessions to support parties.
In connection with fact that great part political science literature does not offer precise theory of majority governments, we shall look on majority governments from sight of minority governments theory. Many authors regarded majority government as a norm and set out to explain minority government as a “deviation” from this. One of the first systematic considerations of minority government was provided by Herman and Pope, who offer five reasons why majority governments do not form (or suggesting that minority governments arise in one of five broad types of situations):
1. When elections usually can be expected to provide one party with a legislative majority but, on those occasions where the post-election one – party majority government is not present, a one – party minority government comes into office,
2. in immobiliste situations when certain structural features inherent in the party system severely handicap the formation of majority coalitions,
3. ... in situations in which the party forming the government is only a small number of seats short of a legislative majority. ... Norway became part of a Danish realm in the 16th century. When the Norwegian Council of the Realm was dissolved in Copenhagen in October 1536, at Norway’s final submission to the Danish Crown and at the introduction of the Lutheran Reformation, the country was without central executive institutions for the first time in centuries. 271 years later, in the autumn of 1807, the war between Great Britain and Denmark-Norway, where Sweden supported Britain, made it necessary to have a minimum of executive institutions in Norway. The war led to a situation where connections between Denmark and Norway were broken. In the years 1807-1810 this caused certain adjustments in the centralized Danish governing of Norway. ... This was the first national governmental body to be established in Norway since the Council of Realm had been dissolved in 1536. When the Danish-Norwegian realm was dissolved and according to the treaty of Kiel on 14 January 1814 Norway was submitted to Sweden, separate Norwegian governing bodies again became necessary. ... The National Assembly, which met at Eidsvoll on 11 April 1814, elected Christian Frederik as Norway’s king, while passing the Constitution with its regulations concerning national executive bodies. ... Prime minister’s Johan Sverdrup’s 1884 government marks the introduction of the parliamentary system in Norway (government is parliamentary dependent). ... The electoral domination of Labor helped it to achieve stability and, already the leading party, it advanced even further to enjoy an effective majority in the Storting. Labor’s majority position was broken in 1961 and led to the formation on its left of the Socialist People’s Party. ...
From Majority Parliamentarism to Minority Parliamentarism
1) A parliamentary system based upon the classical precept that the government must have the support of the majority of the legislature is most obviously realized when there are only two integrated parties. This, broadly speaking, was Norway’s situation from the introduction of the parliamentarism until about 1920. ... No party was able to achieve, or even closely achieve, a Storting majority. ... Normally, parties seek to forge majority coalitions in such circumstances. In Norway, however, the preferred path is that of single-party minority governments relying upon contemporary agreements with other parties.
Approximate Word count = 4398
Approximate Pages = 17.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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