Norway

The politics of Norway take place in the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the Council of State, the cabinet, led by the Prime Minister of Norway. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the legislature, the Storting, elected within a multi-party system.

Norway has a unicameral Parliament, with members elected by popular vote for a four-year term (during which it may not be dissolved) by proportional representation in multi-member constituencies.

The mainland of Norway is divided into 11 counties. Counties and municipalities have local autonomy, but this autonomy is circumscribed by national controls. There are 356 municipalities in Norway. This is the lowest level of organization except for the capital Oslo, which is further divided into burroughs with limited, but some autonomy.

Norway issued applications for accession to the European Union (EU) and its predecessors in 1962, 1967 and 1992, respectively. While Denmark, Sweden and Finland obtained membership, the Norwegian electorate rejected the treaties of accession in referenda in 1972 and 1994. After the 1994 referendum, Norway maintained its membership in the European Economic Area (EEA).

The degree of EU policy adaptation varies between sectors and policy areas, due to both limitations set in the EEA agreement, and "softer" factors such as national priorities. In some policy areas, such as finance and environmental protection, EU legislation is to a large degree adopted relatively seamlessly. Agriculture and fishery, the later very important to the Norwegian economy, is not part of the EEA agreement and hence the overlap in policies is substantially lower.

Translations of EU regulations that nonetheless apply to Norway is the responsibility of the Norwegian government and can cause problems in interpretation, and in early stages Norwegian lawyers must at times rely on the Danish or English translations.