In democracies, power lies with the people
Plato and democracy: who is actually being listened to?
[excerpt]Platon analyserte demokrati som et styresett der popularitet kan få større gjennomslag enn innsikt. Gjennom sine dialoger reiser han et spørsmål som fortsatt er aktuelt: Hvem blir faktisk lyttet til når beslutninger tas?[/excerpt] Platon (ca. 427–347 f.Kr.)...
The position of the monarchy in a modern democracy
[excerpt]Monarchies must be understood on a different timescale than media, politicians, and ordinary reputation crises. The role is not only about popularity in the moment, but about continuity, loyalty, symbols, and national stability across generations and across...
King Solomon and The Hatmaker [send bidrag!]
All are equal before the law – except for public administration, of course.
"All are equal before the law," reads Article 98 of the Norwegian Constitution. It could hardly be stated more clearly. The law applies to everyone equally. But perhaps it is the wording in the rest of the article that impoverished public agencies find comfort in: "No person must be subject to unjust or disproportionate differential treatment." Because, after all, a public agency is not a person. So they are not to be treated equally under the...
Professor Sheri Berman sees the solution to democracy’s challenges in rebuilding its social foundations
[excerpt]Political science professor Sheri Berman at Barnard College writes in the Journal of Democracy that the crisis of democracy should have been predictable. She argues that the solution lies in rebuilding the social foundations of democracy—particularly by...
Economist’s Democracy Index 2025 Presented Without the Index
[excerpt]The Economist’s analytical unit has published only a summary version of the Democracy Index for 2025. The report omits the index itself—the table in which the British media group ranks the world’s nations. Wikipedia has nevertheless presented the figures....
Professor Sheri Berman sees the solution to democracy’s challenges in rebuilding its social foundations
[excerpt]Political science professor Sheri Berman at Barnard College writes in the Journal of Democracy that the crisis of democracy should have been predictable. She argues that the solution lies in rebuilding the social foundations of democracy—particularly by...
Economist’s Democracy Index 2025 Presented Without the Index
[excerpt]The Economist’s analytical unit has published only a summary version of the Democracy Index for 2025. The report omits the index itself—the table in which the British media group ranks the world’s nations. Wikipedia has nevertheless presented the figures....
Solonian Democracy Institute – an international corrective to today’s democratic model
[excerpt]Can democracy be understood anew—not primarily as a system of representation, but as real power exercised by the people themselves? The Solonian Democracy Institute starts from precisely this question. [/excerpt] The Solonian Democracy Institute is an...
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What are the consequences when NGOs are publicly controlled (GCNGOs)?
[excerpt]What are the consequences when civil society organizations (NGOs) are largely publicly funded and thereby effectively publicly controlled (GCNGOs)? This dependency requires caution toward politically controlled funding sources and influences how organizations...
The United Nations Association of Norway lends credibility to the debated Economist Democracy Index
[excerpt]The United Nations Association of Norway (FN-sambandet) presents The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index as a central source for understanding democracy globally. The presentation appears neutral and fact-based, yet contributes to giving the...
What are the consequences when NGOs are publicly controlled (GCNGOs)?
[excerpt]What are the consequences when civil society organizations (NGOs) are largely publicly funded and thereby effectively publicly controlled (GCNGOs)? This dependency requires caution toward politically controlled funding sources and influences how organizations...
The United Nations Association of Norway lends credibility to the debated Economist Democracy Index
[excerpt]The United Nations Association of Norway (FN-sambandet) presents The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Democracy Index as a central source for understanding democracy globally. The presentation appears neutral and fact-based, yet contributes to giving the...
What is the Economist Democracy Index missing?
[excerpt]The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)’s Democracy Index is among the world’s most cited international rankings of democratic quality. That is precisely why Oagal sees it as necessary to raise a simple but important question: What is actually being measured —...
Manipulation Techniques in Relationships and Parallels in Political Communication
[excerpt]Manipulation techniques in close relationships have clear parallels with strategies that may occur in public political communication. This is serious because such mechanisms can influence how people perceive reality. The overview below is partly based on...
Worried? Here is the Oagal Model for Strengthening Norwegian Democracy
[excerpt]Worried about Norwegian democracy? Many people are – including members of parliament – and with good reason. Through the electoral law, our parliamentary representatives have turned popular sovereignty into party rule by handing over personal candidate...
Manipulation Techniques in Relationships and Parallels in Political Communication
[excerpt]Manipulation techniques in close relationships have clear parallels with strategies that may occur in public political communication. This is serious because such mechanisms can influence how people perceive reality. The overview below is partly based on...
Worried? Here is the Oagal Model for Strengthening Norwegian Democracy
[excerpt]Worried about Norwegian democracy? Many people are – including members of parliament – and with good reason. Through the electoral law, our parliamentary representatives have turned popular sovereignty into party rule by handing over personal candidate...
The Norwegian Labour Party proposed a balanced constitutional court reform • Only halfway implemented
[excerpt]In 1929, the Labour Party argued for abolishing the bicameral system in the Storting – but as a positively balanced part of a broader project to strengthen constitutional oversight and the balance of power. Nearly one hundred years later, the bicameral system...
The Unjust State
[excerpt]“We had no other choice.” That is often how it is said in retrospect. When systems have committed injustice and people have taken part in something that was clearly wrong, this is the explanation that recurs. In Norway, the unjust state is now gradually...
The Norwegian Labour Party proposed a balanced constitutional court reform • Only halfway implemented
[excerpt]In 1929, the Labour Party argued for abolishing the bicameral system in the Storting – but as a positively balanced part of a broader project to strengthen constitutional oversight and the balance of power. Nearly one hundred years later, the bicameral system...
The Unjust State
[excerpt]“We had no other choice.” That is often how it is said in retrospect. When systems have committed injustice and people have taken part in something that was clearly wrong, this is the explanation that recurs. In Norway, the unjust state is now gradually...
Strong constitutional courts are fundamental to healthy democracies
[excerpt]Norway and the Nordic countries have weak or absent arrangements for constitutional review compared with many other democracies. In large parts of Europe and many other countries, a constitutional court or a court with a clear constitutional role is a central...
The Norwegian state drains the middle class and secures rule by politicians
[excerpt]Norway has what Oagal describes as “The Norwegian State’s Triple-Fund Model.” Cash flows from petroleum reserves, the petroleum fund, and the middle class’s residual liquidity and credit capacity through the wealth tax come in addition to revenues from...
Great statesmen pushed Norwegian democracy into motion – now responsible citizens are needed again
[excerpt]In the 19th century, democracy was driven forward by individuals who dared to challenge the civil-service state and entrenched elites. Today, democracy is formally intact—but marked by closed power structures, party elites, and a growing distance between...
The Norwegian people without constitutional court protection • Balance of power requires a fight for the role
[excerpt] Without judicial control, a majority can become as tyrannical as a king, James Madison warned. The Constitution in Norway, too, points in a different direction than current practice: a genuinely intended principle of separation of powers, with independent...
Can we trust the EIU Democracy Index 2025?
[excerpt]The EIU Democracy Index is often treated as a definitive benchmark when democracies are assessed. But when Norway scores 9.81 out of 10—while large democracies are labeled flawed—it is worth asking what the index actually measures, who is doing the measuring,...
Norwegian Sámi have less democratic influence than Māori in New Zealand
[excerpt]In Norway, Sámi representation is organized through the Sámi Parliament, a separate elected body without legislative power. In New Zealand, Māori, by contrast, have reserved seats in parliament, with full voting rights in all national matters. This model...
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King Solomon and The Hatmaker [send bidrag!]
All are equal before the law – except for public administration, of course.
"All are equal before the law," reads Article 98 of the Norwegian Constitution. It could hardly be stated more clearly. The law applies to everyone equally. But perhaps it is the wording in the rest of the article that impoverished public agencies find comfort in: "No person must be subject to unjust or disproportionate differential treatment."...
Socrates’ critique of democracy is often misused as an anti-democratic argument
[excerpt]Socrates argued that one informed vote should carry more weight than many uninformed ones, and that people are easily swayed by rhetoric. This critique is often invoked as an argument against democracy. Oagal argues the opposite: Socrates’ critique is not an...
Courts’ approval of bankruptcy estates without a valid audit undermines the rule of law and legal certainty
[excerpt]When Norwegian courts conclude a large number of bankruptcy estates without estate accounts audited in accordance with good auditing practice, they contribute as an institution to undermining citizens’ legal security and their own role in the democratic...
The glorification of fair elections in democratic Norway continues despite the country’s destructive electoral system
[excerpt]Norway consistently receives top scores for its democracy, with “fair elections” frequently highlighted. This remains the case even after the introduction of closed party lists in the 2025 parliamentary election. There is no functioning mechanism for...
Individual candidate selection to Norway’s national assembly is decided long before elections are held
[excerpt]Parliamentary elections in Norway have, for many years, been decided long before voters cast their ballots. The National Assembly ("Stortinget") cemented this in 2023 by adopting a new election law, used for the first time in the 2025 parliamentary election....
Solidarity with citizens in failing democracies
[excerpt]Democracy is a political system in which citizens decide. But even in the world’s best democracies, this is no longer the case. Representative government has more or less completely taken over, even though representatives were originally meant to support...
The Norwegian fund state – a new governance model with asymmetric political dominance
[excerpt]Norway is often recognized for having avoided the fate of many oil nations marked by accelerating inflation and democratic failure. Instead, the country became a nation with oil—distinguished from oil states by citizens retaining control over democracy, fair...
Male circumcision as a democratic boundary issue
[excerpt] Male circumcision is often treated as a medical or religious issue. However, the procedure also raises fundamental democratic questions: Who should be allowed to decide on irreversible interventions in children’s bodies, and how should such decisions be...
Democratic control must be strengthened over public administration and judicial practice
[excerpt] When political institutions and public administration fail to exercise sufficient oversight on behalf of popular sovereignty, a democratic vacuum emerges. In such situations, it is not only legitimate, but necessary to consider structural change. Oagal...
When does politics harm democracy?
[excerpt]Many believe that politics in Western democracies has gone too far. Even when policies are formally legitimate, it becomes a democratic problem when large segments of the population feel that a boundary has been crossed—without this being taken...
Court fees — a lock on the rule of law and a failure of democracy
[excerpt] When court fees are in practice used to exclude people from Norwegian judicial review in enforcement and bankruptcy proceedings, a democratic shift occurs: the courts become something one must be able to purchase access to – even in order to challenge state...
Troverdighetsbedrageri skaper utfordringer for demokratiet
[excerpt]Troverdighetsbedrageri oppstår når mennesker vet at de nyter urettmessig godt av andres tillit med uttalelser, handlinger og i roller som de ikke fyller med reell uavhengighet. Fenoment er kjent i Norge og internasjonalt[/excerpt] Det finnes et lite knepp i...
List dictatorship – or list rule – in the Norwegian electoral system: fact check and conceptual discussion
[excerpt]The term list dictatorship has been used to describe the Norwegian electoral system, highlighting how closed party lists give a small number of people significant influence over who is actually elected to the Storting. The terms are polemical, but they raise...
Is Norway a Democracy?
[excerpt]Norway is unquestionably a democracy. But like many of the world’s leading democratic states, it now shares a common fate: the healthy “normal” that once sustained trust, accountability, and genuine representation is under growing pressure. Party-controlled...
Susanne Heart: The media drown us in their conclusions
[excerpt]“We are drowning in pre-digested truths and emotion-driven information. The news stream serves us the conclusions before we have time to ask a single question. We are told what to think, what to fear, and how to understand the world before our own thought...
Democracies fall according to a well-known pattern of eight phases
[excerpt]The governing structures and political exercise of power characterizing several major democracies bear the same features that historically have sent people-governed societies over the cliff. Phases and patterns described already in antiquity can today be...
Norway close to anarchy – or already there?
[excerpt] Has Norway become an anarchy? It sounds absurd. Yet an increasing number of decisions are made outside political processes, a growing public administration is filled with politicians, politicians routinely lie on open camera to state-funded journalists, and...
The Oslo District Reform demonstrates a deep democratic failure in the nation’s capital and in municipal Norway.
[excerpt]The Oslo District Reform highlights an ongoing and profound democratic failure in the nation’s capital—one that is also widespread throughout municipal Norway. Under the guise of one of the reform’s main objectives (1c) — “Strengthened local democracy and...
When representatives’ self-interest comes before the common good, governance in Norway is representative in name only
[excerpt]In a representative democracy, representatives gather to make decisions that citizens themselves cannot—or would not—make, because not everyone can assemble and self-interest could stand in the way of the common good. When party-elected members of parliament...
The new Norwegian class struggle is for the people against political ruling elite
[excerpt]The new class struggle is for the people and against a political regime that operates on an outdated legacy of class struggle—seemingly with the same ideals of justice as before, yet which has now installed the children and grandchildren of former class...
Preliminary selection for the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) conducted without voter participation
[excerpt]Party-controlled preliminary selection – that is, without voter participation – was carried out for the Norwegian Parliament for the first time in 2025, at least in modern times. Oagal already congratulated a full 80 members of Parliament on June 2, 2025 with...
Mørke oppstår når media jager mest der makthaverne lyser
[excerpt]Når media mister meta-perspektivet og i hovedsak følger makthavernes prioriteringer, kan det oppstå blindsoner der sentrale maktkonstellasjoner forblir utilstrekkelig belyst. Dette perspektivtallet bidrar samtidig til at tradisjonelle medier for mange...
The big loser in the Norwegian election is the people
[excerpt]The big loser in the Norwegian election is the people. At the time of writing, we are in the midst of the run-up to the parliamentary election. The battle appears to be between different political parties, but in reality, it is between popular rule and rule...
Politician-driven Extremism in Norway: Exemplified by the Proposed Civil Protection Act (Sivilbeskyttelsesloven)
[excerpt]The Civil Protection Act was on the verge of being passed in violation of the Norwegian Constitution by a complacent, power-arrogant Parliament, following a proposal from a government that saw an opportunity to grab even more unjustified power for itself. The...
Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist in a Democratic and Gender-Discriminatory Perspective
[excerpt]What are the consequences for democracy and society when analytical tools like Hare’s Psychopathy Checklist are more effective at identifying typically male psychopathic traits than female ones? Among the consequences are that people—both women and...
Norwegian Courts Do Not Fully Understand Their Constitutional Role
[excerpt]Courts at all levels do not fully understand their constitutional role. One of several recent experiences illustrating this concerns an appeal related to the Election Act. Oagal submitted an input to the Borgarting Court of Appeal and received the response:...
Is a constitutional federal republic synonymous with a presidential system of government?
[excerpt]A constitutional federal republic is not necessarily synonymous with a presidential system. While many presidential systems are constitutional federal republics, parliamentary and semi-presidential systems may also fall under this designation.[/excerpt] In a...
Undergraving av fakta et stort problem for folkestyret – men politikk kan godt avvike fra dem
[excerpt]Undergraving av fakta er et alvorlig problem for folkestyret i Norge. Når analyser og fremstillinger blir preget av skjev metodikk, utilstrekkelig objektivitet eller uklare premisser, blir det vanskeligere for innbyggere å orientere seg og ta informerte...
Methods of direct democracy in the world’s largest method database, Direct Democracy Navigator
[excerpt]The Direct Democracy Navigator is the world’s largest online database for direct democracy. Currently, the database includes around 2,000 methods of direct democracy applied in more than 100 countries.[/excerpt] The methods cover national, regional, and local...
A Constitutional Court as One Element in Strengthening the Judiciary in Norway
[excerpt]Citizens in Norway are in a weak position vis-à-vis the country’s powerful party-controlled state apparatus because the courts cannot, on their own initiative, intervene to safeguard law and justice. It is time to strengthen the rule of law’s ability to...
Design of Deliberative Processes in East Belgium: A Well-Known Model
[excerpt]The design of deliberative processes in the German-speaking part of East Belgium has become an interesting and well-structured model. Many view this model as a guiding star for deliberative assemblies. The combination of a citizens' council and a citizens'...
Erik Solheim: When democracy fails to deliver, legitimate demands for change emerge
[excerpt]“Democracy struggles if it fails to deliver good healthcare, education, infrastructure, economic performance, and environmental solutions for people. In that case, the erosion of trust and demands for change will continue. People care more about results than...
Norwegian popular sovereignty is weak compared with the United States and many other countries
[excerpt]Despite Norway’s reputation as a global democratic leader, Norwegian popular sovereignty has several decisive weaknesses compared with countries such as the United States and Switzerland. Barriers to citizen initiatives, a weak judiciary, and the widespread...
Right-wing extremism and left-wing extremism—or simply the denigration of opponents’ positions?
[excerpt]Right-wing extremism is a label we often encounter in public discourse. It is frequently applied to legitimate right-of-center positions by people who themselves hold equally mainstream views on the left—without describing themselves as left-wing extremists...
The Norwegian electoral system is now “a closed party-list system”
[excerpt]Beginning with the 2025 election, the Norwegian electoral system shifts from allowing voters to give personal votes to becoming a closed party-list system. The new election law took effect on May 1, 2024, removing the Norwegian electorate’s ability to...
The parliamentary election is rigged • Norway’s national assembly selects itself
[excerpt]Norway’s parliamentary election is effectively decided long before it is held. The rigging includes ownership of the country’s most important media channel, NRK, and keeping the rest in line through mild but decisive subsidies. The uniquely Norwegian form of...
Coparticipation is codetermination and acknowledgment
[excerpt]Coparticipation means codetermination and acknowledgment. But in their struggle to cling to power and violate the Planning and Building Act with a clear conscience, the politics industry prefers to reduce coparticipation to a kind of polite listening to the...
Workers are stronger with independent labor unions
[excerpt]Workers need labor unions that are independent and do not abuse their position of power in ways that harm union members’ interests domestically or abroad. Through abuse of power, corruption, and organizational culture, labor unions have damaged the...
The challenging area of law and justice in democracy
[excerpt]Lov og rett er et utfordrende område i demokratiet. Å skulle hevde sin rett er høyrisikosport fordi jussen er kompleks og vil ofte forutsette bruk av kostbare advokater. Domstolene (Høyesterett) kan sette til side nye lover fra den lovgivende forsamlingen...
The balance of power in a democracy means that neither the few tyrannize the many, nor the many tyrannize the few
[excerpt]Balance of power in a democracy involves finding the space where the few cannot tyrannize the many, nor the many tyrannize the few. As a central figure in the founding of the United States, James Madison was concerned with how balance of power in a democracy...
Political oligarchy in both Western democracies and Russia
[excerpt]Oligarchy is something we usually associate with non-democratic countries. However, there are also oligarchic traits within the so-called representative systems of Western countries.[/excerpt] Perhaps less hypocrisy and greater understanding of similarities...
Increased use of deliberative assemblies, including juries, will strengthen the foundation for decision-making and governance.
[excerpt]Deliberative democracy holds great potential to strengthen popular democracy. Responsibility for assessments, decisions, and implementation can be delegated to assemblies similar to the Sámi Parliament. The involvement that deliberative assemblies represent...
The Sámi Parliament as an Example of Active Deliberative Democracy in Norway
[excerpt]The Sámi Parliament functions as a form of deliberative democracy in Norway. Through the Sámi Act, the Sámi Parliament has been delegated authority to manage appropriations for Sámi purposes. This is also an arena for discussion and cooperation between...
In deliberative democracy, decisions are made and implemented by informed citizens
[excerpt]Deliberative democracy represents a democratic perspective that emphasizes dialogue, discussion, and deliberation prior to decisions. In its pure form, the decision-makers are also responsible for implementation.[/excerpt] In a democracy, citizens can be...
The Norwegian parliament rejects personal votes for itself but allows them for counties and municipalities
[excerpt]The Norwegian parliament the Storting says no to personal votes for itself. Behind this lies a desire by party organizations for a purely organization-representative system of governance. Such a system is characterized by party organizations – not citizens –...
Democracy is drowning in politics
[excerpt]Democracy is much more than politics alone. It is about giving people real influence across all areas of society, not only through the ballot box, but also through rights, participation in civil society, and an independent judicial system....
A critical look at the Democracy Index of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU)
[excerpt]Norway is once again basking in the glow of first place on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Democracy Index for 2023. But is it truly the world’s best democracy that tops the index? It is also a question of whether the country will be able to retain...
The Election Law Commission concludes: Individual candidate selection is only a theoretical possibility
[excerpt]The majority of the Election Law Commission recommended the introduction of real individual candidate selection in parliamentary elections. "It is a democratic advancement when voters gain influence over which representative is elected, in addition to which...
2024: A Horrific Year for Norwegian Democracy
[excerpt]When Parliament acknowledged that personal voting had no effect, the choice was to abolish the system rather than improve it. At the same time, the Norwegian national assembly made it even more difficult for small parties to gain representation—in a country...
What is direct democracy, and how is it achieved?
New Zealand Leads the Way with a Changed Electoral System in Modern Times
[excerpt]The people of New Zealand wanted to change the electoral system because changes in government did not lead to changes in policy. They unexpectedly received help from Labour’s then Prime Minister David Lange, who, during a debate, misread his notes and...
Norwegian trustees found guilty of breach of trust must step down for an extended period
[excerpt]When trustees prove unworthy of the trust placed in them by exploiting benefit schemes or committing other criminal acts, they must step down—for a long time. Norwegian political organizations that reinstate them too quickly are guilty of the same corruption...
How bureaucracy and elected officials denied citizens participation in Skøyen
[excerpt]At milestone after milestone in the Skoyen area zoning plan process, the rulers within Oslo’s Agency for Planning and Building Services, the city government, and the City Council chose not to carry out participation in accordance with Norwegian law and public...
Norway and other countries are too immature for unions like the EU
[excerpt]Norway is immature for the EU. This also applies to other countries and to other unions. The immaturity is evident in how elected representatives, not even at the local-government level or in national legislatures, manage to represent citizens well or...