Independent Lists in Norwegian Local Politics

Abstract

Political parties and local politics are uneasy bedfellows. Since parties tend to focus on nationally-based cleavages, they frequently draw attention away from genuinely local affairs. Furthermore, local political issues are often incompatible with party cleavages. Yet, local politics is in most western countries party politicised. Furthermore, the party systems found at the local level are, to a great extent, blueprints of national party systems. Generally, the Scandinavian countries are highly party-based local government systems, with the national parties present in most local elections.KeywordsPolitical PartyLocal PoliticsParty MemberCampaign ActivityLocal ElectionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.