Norwegian Party Research Articles

Tapestries of Topics: Factors Affecting the Issue Diversity of Political Parties’ Social Media Campaigns

<p>For citizens to make well-informed decisions, they require information on diverse policy issues, which, among others, are publicized on political parties’ social media accounts. However, as strategic actors, parties carefully weigh which issues to highlight and which to play down, rather than addressing a full range of issues in their campaigns. We investigated the hitherto neglected question of which issue diversity parties prioritize on their social media accounts and which factors influence this choice. We conducted a standardized content analysis of the official Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts of 10 Norwegian parties and their leaders during the 2021 national election campaign. The results of our analyses indicate that issue-related campaign strategies influence parties’ issue diversity more systematically than parties’ governing/opposition statuses and their choices of social media platforms.</p>

‘Organic unity through a new order’: Ideas of corporatism and the Norwegian Nasjonal Samling

This paper analyses the complex relationship between ideas of corporatism, the Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling (National Unity, NS), fascist Italy, and fascist internationalism in the 1930s. It demonstrates how the NS fused the foreign corporative model provided by fascist Italy with nativist traditions and used corporatism to its ends as a signifier for a national and international ‘new order’ on the rise, based on ideas of solidarity. The NS party manifesto from 1934 envisioned corporatism as a promising alternative to capitalist liberalism and as a solution to the parliamentary crisis. The corporatist NS program also facilitated connections between the Norwegian party and Italian Fascism, culminating in the idea of corporatism as a uniting principle of fascist internationalism in the mid-1930s. Finally, the paper discusses briefly the legacy of the corporatist NS program and its fragmentary implementation in the 1940s during the German occupation of Norway (1940-1945).

Deliberative democracy in contemporary political parties: Longitudinal evidence from Norway

Parties lose members, and organizational measures adopted to counter the alleged “crisis of parties” have often turned out to be counterproductive. In response to this development, scholars have argued that parties need to strengthen their deliberative capacity. Despite this (normative) claim, we know very little about levels of deliberation in contemporary parties. Based on unique longitudinal surveys among Norwegian party members between 1991 and 2017, the article analyzes levels of deliberative capacity across time and parties. The study finds a substantial level of deliberative capacity and that this capacity has been strengthened in recent decades. There is some inter-party variation, but it reflects the organizational origin of the parties only to a limited degree. The findings suggest that the deliberative capacity of political parties is far better than often assumed in the literature. Therefore, the study argues that “crisis” is a term unfit to describe recent developments in contemporary parties in Norway, and that membership figures alone are an insufficient indicator to measure the linkage potential of party organizations in democracies.

Why Norway has more female local councillors than Denmark: a crack in the Nordic gender equality model?

The article explores why women are better represented in municipal councils in Norway than in Denmark. This comparative case study offers a most similar systems design, as these two countries are similar on most relevant institutional variables, such as local government systems, electoral systems, party systems and societal gender equality, but they deviate on the dependent variable of women’s representation. Two unique comparative data sets are analysed: representative voter surveys and register data on all candidates (from the 2019 Norwegian and 2017 Danish municipal elections). The study focuses on demand-side explanations and concludes that institutional explanations do not appear relevant. Instead, the parties’ candidate selection matters: Norwegian parties are more concerned with gender balance than their Danish counterparts. Finally, the article discusses why this is the case and asks whether gender equality plays a more prominent role on the societal agenda in Norway than in Denmark.

THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN IN STORTING 2021

The article examines the phenomenon of the influence of social networks on election campaigns using the example of Norway. For an introduction to the context of the electoral situation in Norway, the author describes the election programs of the main Norwegian political parties. Methods of content analysis and discourse analysis are used to better understand network voter mobilization. The author provides a review of the literature on this topic in order to substantiate the need for the applied methodology. The analysis of the share of Internet users in different countries has been carried out. The most popular social networks have been identified and the networks that are best suited for political mobilization and are used in Norway have been identified. The author carried out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the official Facebook accounts of the Norwegian parliamentary parties during the election campaign in 2021. The study revealed the main trends in the behavior of political parties and their voters on the Facebook social network. The author concludes that all political parties in Norway use social networks as one of the main channels for mobilizing supporters. In addition, this tool allows parties to respond to current topics and changing voter sentiments.

‘Win a sweater with the PM’S face on it’ – A longitudinal study of Norwegian party Facebook engagement strategies

ABSTRACT Receiving Facebook post engagement – such as likes, comments and shares – is crucial in order to succeed online, perhaps especially for political actors. However, online engagement can also be hazardous, as it potentially strips the original poster of control over their messages. Previous work has shown that political actors have been rather unwilling to encourage interaction from their online supporters. However, research has also indicated a need to assess the influence of Facebook in this regard. Building on the theory of controlled interactivity, the study presented here details what is referred to as Facebook engagement strategies among Norwegian political parties on Facebook between 2009 and 2019. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to compare party and follower activity in relation to the aforementioned engagement varieties, the main findings indicate that parties and followers do not necessarily seek to interact at the same time. Furthermore, tendencies towards gamification, where parties direct user attention towards online quizzes and raffles instead of towards deliberation and political discussion, can be discerned.

Comparing Twitter and Instagram as platforms for party leader communication

While social media have become key in contemporary political campaigns, different platforms feature differing affordances, allowing for varying functionalities. Even more importantly, different platforms are populated by different user groups. As Twitter has received large amounts of scholarly attention, comparisons of how and why different social media platforms are used for political communication are less abundant. This study looks at the differences between Twitter and Instagram as platforms for top politicians, describing and explaining how they allow for interaction with different types of audiences. The study gauges the interaction patterns emerging from activity undertaken by Norwegian party leaders on Twitter and Instagram during the 2017 Norwegian elections and shows how use of these two platforms differ not only in terms of the volume and structure of the activities — but also with regard to what types of other users the party leaders choose to interact with on the studied platforms and why we see differences between them.

Reconnecting Forward: Nasjonal Samling’s Apocalyptic Temporality as a Key to the Fascist Regime of Historicity

Abstract This article analyses the conception of history or ‘regime of historicity’ structuring the ideology of the Norwegian fascist party, Nasjonal Samling (1933–1945). It highlights the value of the theory of palingenetic ultranationalism to the understanding of fascist temporality generically and specifically. Generically, because the findings show how Nasjonal Samling’s regime of historicity followed the same structure of revolution and eternity, decay and rebirth, as other fascist movements did. Specifically, because it also shows how Nasjonal Samling drew heavily on Norwegian national myths. The ideologues of ns recoded these myths, and integrated them into their own palingenetic, apocalyptic, and – after 1935 – antisemitic grand narratives. These crystallized in a triadic scheme, forming a fascist regime of historicity, structured around the myth of past greatness, followed by decadence, combined with a fantasy of a future revolutionary rebirth of the nation.

Do party organizations integrate multi-level states? The case of the Norwegian Local Government Reform

ABSTRACT Party organizations are often said to integrate the territorial levels in a political system. This article analyses how party organizations handled a specific issue – municipal amalgamations initiated by the state – in a unitary state – Norway. Two types of organizational linkage are explored. First, bottom-up influence: to what extent did party branches attempt to influence national party policy? Second, top-down coordination and control: to what extent were party branches tools for implementing national party policy? Based on qualitative interviews in five Norwegian parties, the analyses show that party organizations provided linkage in different ways. In the most united parties, low levels of internal disagreement enabled the parties – at all levels – to promote their national policies. In divided parties, the party organization became an arena for competition between opposing views. These parties chose to emphasize local self-determination. Accordingly, they had less of a national policy to implement.

Norwegian Fascism in a Transnational Perspective: The Influence of German National Socialism and Italian Fascism on the Nasjonal Samling, 1933–1936

Following the transnational turn within fascist studies, this paper examines the role German National Socialism and Italian Fascism played in the transformation of the Norwegian fascist party Nasjonal Samling in the years 1933–1936. It takes the rivalry of the two role models as the initial point and focusses on the reception of Italy and Germany in the party press of the Nasjonal Samling. The main topics of research are therefore the role of corporatism, the involvement in the organization caur and the increasing importance of anti-Semitism. One main argument is that both indirect and direct German influence on the Nasjonal Samling in autumn 1935 led to a radicalization of the party and the endorsement of anti-Semitic attitudes. However, the Nasjonal Samling under leader Vidkun Quisling never prioritized Italo-German rivalry as such. Instead, it perceived itself as an independent national movement in the common battle of a European-wide phenomenon against its arch-enemies: liberalism and communism.

Skiing all the way to the polls: Exploring the popularity of personalized posts on political Instagram accounts

While research has gauged the degree to which political actors focus on their personal rather than their more public sides in their communication efforts, few studies have assessed the extent to which personalized content succeeds in gaining traction among online followers. The current study does just that, focusing on the Instagram accounts operated by Norwegian parties and party leaders. Results indicate that party leaders emerge as more successful than parties in gaining attention through ‘likes’ and comments and that they offer personalized content to higher degrees than the parties they represent. While personalized content might lead to increased political engagement among citizens, the fact that personalization ‘works’ in terms of gaining attention might also skew political PR and marketing towards excessive use of such themes.

Party bureaucrats, independent professionals, or politicians? A study of party employees

The number of party employees is increasing, but to what extent and in what sense are party employees integrated into their parties? Based on the literature on party change, the article identifies three important dimensions ‒ ties, tasks, and career plans ‒ and constructs a typology of four ideal types of party employees – technical assistants, party bureaucrats, independent professionals, and unelected politicians. Data on Norwegian party employees suggest that they have strong party ties and are entrusted with a wide range of political tasks. However, career plans rarely include elected office. The results indicate that party employees have stronger party ties than envisaged in influential party models. Professionalisation does not render party grassroots irrelevant, but rather turns some grassroots activists into professionals – what can be called ‘unelected politicians’. In conclusion, the article discusses implications for contemporary understandings of political parties.

PROBLEMY ZRÓWNOWAŻONEGO ROZWOJU W PROGRAMACH NORWESKICH PARTII POLITYCZNYCH

PROBLEMY ZRÓWNOWAŻONEGO ROZWOJU W PROGRAMACH NORWESKICH PARTII POLITYCZNYCH

Facebook-kommunikasjonen til norske partileiarar: sjangrar og nærleiksymbolikk

Norwegian party leaders’ Facebook communication: genres and symbols of proximity This article is based on quantitative and qualitative content analyses of 1,278 status updates and 336 comments published by seven Norwegian party leaders on Facebook. Based on theories of self-presentation, personification of politics and the Scandinavian political culture, the variations in genres and strategies of legitimization in the party leaders’ communication are studied. The article finds that the party leaders use Facebook to broadcast and promote their own political activities and actions. Even though Facebook does not seem to contribute to more dialogue with voters, it is argued that the party leaders demonstrate clear images of proximity and closeness to the public.

Birds of a feather flock together? Party leaders on Twitter during the 2013 Norwegian elections

The advent of social media has spurred democratic optimism and been seen as something that help political public relations establish and maintain good relationships with key publics. Still, research has shown how, for instance, political candidates in the United States by large did not respond to messages on their Facebook walls. Another popular social media platform, Twitter, has often been deemed as an elite medium, thus reducing its democratic potential. The findings in this study show a different picture. Most of the politicians in the sample do use Twitter and its @message functionality. Furthermore, the extent to which they communicate with ordinary citizens is larger than expected. Still, it is a clear tendency that the exchanges are found in user clusters with little overlap between them. The researched party leaders mostly approach other Twitter users in unique clusters. Thus, Twitter probably functions to maintain good relationships with, literarily, followers. As Norwegian party leaders use the @message functionality more frequently than before – especially to engage in communication with citizens – maybe we are seeing a shift in how political actors engage in online interactivity.

Pandering, protesting, engaging. Norwegian party leaders on Facebook during the 2013 ‘Short campaign'

While a comparably large amount of research has looked into the uses of Twitter at the hands of politicians, relatively little work has been done how Facebook is being used in this regard. The current paper expands our insights into the uses of social media by politicians by presenting a study of party leaders' uses of Facebook during the 2013 Norwegian election campaign. The paper focuses on two overarching areas: gauging the different themes brought up by the party leaders in their posts and the types of feedback (understood here as likes, comments and shares) that these activities appear to result in. Results indicate that the types of content least provided by the politicians – acknowledging the support of others or criticizing the actions by political peers or media actors – emerge as the most popular in this regard. Results further show that the most common type of feedback is likes – a finding that suggesting that a reassessment of the viral qualities of Facebook for purposes like these is necessary.

Online, all the time? A quantitative assessment of the permanent campaign on Facebook

Many claims have been made regarding the influence of social media like Facebook on activities undertaken by political actors. While the study of online political communication provides several different perspectives, few studies have attempted to uncover tendencies of so-called permanent campaigning in online environments. The term signifies campaign-like activities at the hands of politicians also during non-election periods and has spawned a number of conceptual discussions. This article presents an exploratory effort, studying traces of permanent campaigning in two similar countries—Norway and Sweden. As the former of these countries underwent a parliamentary election during the studied period, the study provides insights into “the election effect”—heightened levels of online activity among the Norwegian parties and politicians that can perhaps best be understood in relation to an ongoing election.

Populist Radical Right Parties in the Nordic Region: A New and Distinct Party Family?

TheNordic countries are no longer characterized by a stable five‐party system. Not only have smallChristian parties andGreen parties emerged in most countries, so‐called ‘populist radical right parties’ have also been increasingly successful in recent decades. This article examines to what extent the populist radical right parties in theNordic countries represent a new party family. Based on various and original data, including archive material, interviews with key representatives, party manifestos and expert surveys, the processes of deciding party names, the development of transnational linkages and ideological transformation are analyzed. The article demonstrates that even though theDanishPeople'sParty, theTrueFinns and theSwedenDemocrats have different historical legacies, they have converged ideologically (i.e., socioeconomically centrist and socioculturally authoritarian), adopted similar names and are on the verge of becoming a more formalized transnational actor. TheProgressParty inNorway is better seen as a hybrid between a populist radical right party and a more traditional conservative party. The findings challenge several classifications in the extensive literature on populist radical right parties. Most importantly, theTrueFinns should be included as a populist radical right party, whereas theNorwegian party should be treated more carefully. Furthermore,Nordic populist radical right parties are no longer – if they have ever been – so‐called ‘neoliberal populists’. Finally, the findings suggest a re‐freezing of theNordic party systems in which a phase of divergence has been replaced by a phase of convergence.

Linkage in Multi-level Party Organizations: The Role(s) of Norwegian Regional Party Branches

The article explores the role of regional party branches in a unitary state: Norway. The regional (county) party secretaries' capability for implementing national organizational strategies is explored, and their roles in bottom-up and top-down intra-party communication are mapped. The study confirms the important role of the county level in Norwegian parties: county branches co-ordinate local branches, assist the national party headquarters, and deal with regional issues and regional attempts to influence national policies. The structure of Norwegian parties mirrors the state structure, but the regional level has a stronger position in the party organizations than in public administration.

Why do the British still remember Scott of the Antarctic?

The announcement of the death of the British polar explorer Captain Robert Scott on his return from the South Pole, which he had reached on 17 January 1912, caused a sensation in Britain and around the world. Although he lost the race to the South Pole to a Norwegian party led by Roald Amundsen, the recent centenary of Scott’s last expedition aroused widespread interest not only in Britain but around the world. This paper examines why the British public continues to consume Scott’s story, with particular reference to the period since 1945. Part one examines how Scott’s story has been adapted to the cultural context of post-imperial Britain, in part by emphasising the scientific aims of his last expedition. Part two moves on to emphasise how this new emphasis was supported by the Royal Geographical Society and the Scott Polar Research Institute, and drew on the extensive material culture and striking visual record left by the Terra Nova expedition.