Thursday, November 1, 2012

Blog 7 -Norway

   According to Duverger’s law, states with proportional representation rules produce more than two effective parties due to the electoral rules. (Hawkins) Proportional representation is, “an electoral system that distributes sears proportionally to the votes each party receives” (Samuels). This means that power is dispersed more and not just given to two main parties. Norway is a great example of a country that supports this law. Looking at its electoral systems shows that it is both a proportional representation, and that is has multiple effective parties.

  The country of Norway is ran by a unicameral parliament with a system that is, “based on the principles of direct election and proportional representation in multi-member electoral divisions” (Norwegian Electoral). They hold elections every few years so that the people can vote new people into parliament. There is direct elections so that the people vote directly for they people that they want to be in office. This is formally called a open or preferential elections because the people actually know who they are voting into office where in contrast a non preferential election only allows for the citizens to vote for a party and then the party leader might pick someone to run in representation of the party. (Hawkins) This way allows the citizens of Norway more say in who is elected into office when they vote.

   The most important aspect in a countries electoral system in determining the truth of Duverger’s law is the effective number of parties because, if the law is true, then because Norway is has proportional representation, there should be multiple effective parties. The country of Norway is divided into 19 countries which are formal establishments in the elections.(wiki) The formula N = 1/ ∑ pi2 determines the effective number of parties in a system by looking at constitutes and seat distribution given to the parties. By using the formula, it is shown that there are about 14.7, or rounded to about 15 effective parties in the Norwegian electoral system.(wiki) So more parties have a chance at a seat in parliament and therefore a voice. This hold true to Duverger’s law that a proportional state will have multiple parties. However, not every party created can get a seat in parliament. The country of Norway contains a threshold that, “only parties with more than 4% of the votes on a national basis – the
election threshold – are entitled to leveling seats” (wiki). If a party can not get 4% then the party will not get any seats in parliament, so even new parties have to work very hard in a proportional representation system if they want seats.

  Another important aspect to look at, although not as important as the effective number of parties, is the district magnitude. That is how many seats are given to each of the electoral districts and how the different countries distribute them. (Hawkins) In the case of Norway distribution of seats are done with, “modified Sainte- Laguë method” (IPU). The method is V/2s+1 “where: V is the total number of votes that party received, and s is the number of seats that party has been allocated so far, initially 0 for all parties” (wiki). Norway’s district magnitude becomes to be around 8.9 because there are 169 seats and about 19 electoral districts. These results hold true to the Duverger’s law as well because there would be a higher district magnitude for proportionally represented countries.

  Norway is a very good cause for proving the Duverger’s law truth. Its’ electoral systems have proportional representation as well as direct elections. That allows for more parties to strive instead of favoring just two parties. It has a high district magnitude as well as containing a threshold for allowing parties to get seats in the parliament. All these things have helped prove that Duverger’s is true in regards to electoral rules and their parties.

Work Cited


 
"Elections in Norway." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Oct. 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_Norway.

Hawkins, Kirk. "Political Parties and Systems." Political Science 150, Provo. 31 Oct. 2012. Lecture.

"IPU PARLINE Database: NORWAY (Stortinget), Electoral System." IPU PARLINE Database: NORWAY (Stortinget), Electoral System. Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2012. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. http://www.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2239_B.htm.

"The Main Features of the Norwegian Electoral System." The Norwegian Electoral System. Ed. Roger Holsmen. Y of Local Government and Regional Development, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/krd/information-campaigns/election_portal/the-norwegian-electoral-system.html?id=456636>.

          Samuels, David. Comparative Politics. NYC: Pearson Education, 2011. Print.

4 comments:

  1. I liked your post and see a lot of similarities between Norway and Israel, who I did my blog on. Like Israel, I see that Norway also has a lot vote threshold of 4%, which allows many smaller parties to gain at least a little representation. In Israel the threshold is 2% though. But compared to many other PR systems, Norway and Israel have low thresholds. I also hought it was interesting how Norway has so many effective political parties, almost 15! Wow, Israel only has about 7, so it sounds like the multi-party system in Norway is a lot bigger. Israel is always forming coalition governments, because their electoral rules require the ruling party to have a majority. Do they form lots of coalition governments in Norway? I think the coalition governments is a great way to force all the competing parties to come together at least a little bit in order to get things done.

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  2. Great work. I saw a lot of similarities between Norway and Lithuania. There is no threshold in Lithuania which is interesting, as Norway does. Norway also had about twice as many effective parties. Lithuania is a very new democracy, your post made me wonder about the effect the recent nature of their development on parties--perhaps that is why Norway has so many more

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  3. Great Job. (I like the country you picked!) There was one sentence that was confusing: "The country of Norway is divided into 19 countries which are formal establishments in the elections." I think you meant to say that there were 19 counties in Norway. Small detail. Overall, great work!Great conclusion.

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  4. I just read a post about russia, which also has a threshold that is often used as a form of repression. Does the Norwegian government give specific reasons for the implementation of threshold?

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