When Radical Reforms Are on the Agenda

Abstract

This article describes the politics of decision making in the Norwegian government and Parliament from an insider’s perspective. The purpose is to explore how politicians can gain acceptance for radical reforms by managing politics in two arenas: the external arena where the media, special interest and lobby groups, and voters influence decisions in Parliament and the internal, closed arena where public policies are formulated and accepted in negotiations between ministries, political parties, and influential stakeholder groups. In the external arena, the management of politics consists of influencing Parliament indirectly through creating and sustaining demand for radical reforms among public stakeholders. The problem for political leaders is that the radicalness of reform is often sacrificed in the decision-making process in government before they reach the Parliament. To successfully bring radical reforms to the Parliament, political leaders therefore need to manage influence from multiple stakeholders and overcome non-decision making.