Freedom in the World 2001 - Norway

2001 Scores

Status: Free
Freedom Rating: 1.0
Civil Liberties: 1
Political Rights: 1

Overview

Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik resigned in March after his coalition government lost a vote of no-confidence concerning a proposal to build gas power plants. Bondevik's minority government wanted to prevent any construction of gas power plants until new technology allowed for more environmentally friendly plants. After Bondevik submitted his resignation, King Harold V appointed Lens Stoltenberg of the opposition Labor Party to form a new government.

Since 1997, Norway has been ruled by a minority coalition of center-right parties led by the Christian People's Party. The alliance, which also includes the Liberal Party and the Center Party, holds 42 seats in the 165-seat Storting (parliament). The Labor Party, which has dominated Norway since the 1920s, holds 65 of the seats. Stoltenberg, a former finance minister, replaced Thorbjorn Jagland as the Labor Party's parliamentary leader, which subsequently bolstered the diminishing popularity of the Labor Party among the voters.

The Eisvold Convention, Norway's current constitution was adopted during a period of de facto independence immediately prior to the acceptance of the Swedish monarch as king of Norway in 1814. After the peaceful dissolution of its relationship with the Swedish crown in 1905, Norway chose a sovereign from a Danish royal house and began to function as a constitutional monarchy with a multiparty parliamentary structure.

With the elections in 2001, the new government will most likely address the issue of membership in the European Union (EU) again. The Labor government negotiated membership in both 1972 and 1994, however the Norwegian electorate rejected it each time by slim margins. Although Norway is not a member of the EU, it does enjoy nearly full access to the EU's single market through membership in the European Economic Area.

In October, the United Nations General Assembly elected Norway to a two-year term on the Security Council, beginning in January 2001.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Norwegians can change their government democratically. The Storting is directly elected for a four-year term by universal suffrage and proportional representation. It then selects one quarter of its members to serve as the upper chamber (Lagting), while the remaining members make up the lower chamber (Odelsting). Neither body is subject to dissolution. A vote of no-confidence in the Storting results in the resignation of the cabinet, and the leader of the party that holds the most seats is then asked to form a new government.

Since 1989 the approximately 20,000-strong Lappic (Saamic) minority has elected an autonomous, 39-member assembly that functions as an advisory body on issues such as regional control of natural resources and preservation of Saami culture. In November, the government granted the Saami assembly its own parliament building in Karasjok. In 1999 the Center for Combating Ethnic Discrimination was established by the government to provide legal aid to persons exposed to discrimination on grounds of religion, race, or national or ethnic origin.

In recent years there have been some instances of xenophobic and nationalist sentiments. The leader of the far-rightist Progress Party, Carl Hagen, demanded that the number of immigrants granted asylum in Norway be reduced. Although 5.5 percent of Norway's population is of foreign origin, most foreigners come from northern Europe. Only about 10,000 asylum seekers enter the country each year.

Freedom of the press is constitutionally guaranteed, and many newspapers are subsidized by the state in order to promote political pluralism. The majority of newspapers are privately owned and openly partisan. Norway has one of the highest rates of Internet users per capita in the world.

The state finances the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in which 93 percent of the population holds nominal membership. The law requires that the monarch and at least half of the cabinet be Lutheran, and those professing the Lutheran Church are bound by law to bring up their children in that faith. Roman Catholics and other Protestants make up 4 percent of the population, and the other 3 percent have no religious affiliation. Other denominations do not have to register with the state unless they seek state support. Muslims, who constitute less than 1 percent, were granted by the government in March the right to broadcast calls to prayer in Oslo.

The constitution guarantees freedom of peaceful assembly and association and the right to strike. Sixty percent of the workforce belongs to the unions, which are free from government control. The Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions (LO), established 100 years ago, has about 850,000 members and is closely linked to the Labor Party. According to the International Labor

Organization, Norwegian employees put in, on average, fewer hours at work than other Europeans. In May, 85,000 workers from various sectors, including public transportation and the newspaper and construction industries, went on strike, rejecting wage increases of three to four percent. This was the largest labor dispute in a decade.

The independent judiciary system is headed by a supreme court and operates at the local and national levels. The king, under advisement from the ministry of justice, appoints judges.

Women's rights are legally protected. In the Storting, women hold approximately 36 percent of the seats. Nevertheless, only 1 percent of the executives of Norway's 500 largest enterprises are women; in the public sector the figure is 11 percent.