Mapping the Norwegian political space - Some findings from an expert survey

This research note reports the results of an expert survey on party positio ns in Norway in 1998. This was a partial replication of the 1989 survey con ducted by Laver and Hunt (1992). The survey results are used to describe im portant aspects of Norwegian party competition, including issue ownership a nd the dimensionality of the Norwegian political space. These results indic ate that important elements of the centre-periphery cleavage are now much m ore aligned with the overall left-right dimension than was the case in 1989 . The convergence of positions of the Socialist Left and Center parties is not surprising, given the extensive cooperation between them during the 199 4 campaign debate on EU membership. The emphasis on non-material values in the 1997 campaign further contributed to the importance of moral issues for the second dimension in Norwegian politics. The mismatch between tradition al party alliances and current party positions has made the process of gove rnment formation quite problematic.