By Adriana Bunea and Idunn Nørbech
Abstract:onsultations are at the heart of Norwegian politics and policymaking. This chapter reviews the institutional and historical context against which public consultations are organized by the Norwegian government and examines the patterns of stakeholder participation in the online public consultations organized by ministries during the period 2009–2023. The chapter employs a new dataset containing information about 104,460 citizens and 146,693 organizations participating in 4,062 consultations. The analysis shows an overall increase in consultations across time and variation in the number of events organized across ministries. The participation of organized interests remained relatively stable across time, while citizens’ participation increased noticeably, especially in recent years. There are also relatively high levels of stakeholder diversity, which are similar across ministries. These findings suggest that public consultations contribute towards a more participatory policymaking style and a more pluralist system of interest representation describing the Norwegian government decision-making.
Published:
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025
DOI:
doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198888581.013.0025
Online available:
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