historical development

The Liberal Party occupies a central position in Norwegian political history and its origin is intimately linked to crucial events in the development of the Norwegian state from the late nineteenth century onwards. As Diagram 12.1 shows, the Liberal Party was not only one of the first two parties to be formed in the Norwegian political system, but it is also directly linked to the development of several other parties.

However, as we shall see, the history of the Liberal Party is also one of more or less continuous decline: its greatest electoral success was in 1885 when it won 76 of the 123 seats in the Storting (parliament). One hundred years later it was without any parliamentary representation at all. The large number of splits in the party suggests an extreme heterogeneity in its origin, a heterogeneity that could not be continued once the reason for the party's establishment had become unimportant.

Origin

The formation of the Norwegian Liberal Association on 29 August 1884 was one step in the development of the most serious political crisis in Norway after the country had entered a union with Sweden in 1814. At issue was the question of whether the king had the right to veto a constitutional amendment which the parliament had voted in favour of three times. This issue was later referred to as the struggle over parliamentarianism. The first two Norwegian parties, the Liberals and their opponents – the Conservatives – emerged over this issue, with the Liberals as the reformers.