Between opinion leadership and 'contract of disagreement': The Norwegian Labour Party and the European issue (1988-1994)

The Norwegian Labour Party elite advocated European Union membership in the 1994 referendum, but the party's members and voters were divided. This art icle examines the party leadership's conflict management strategies. The po ssible tradeoff between, on the one hand, seeking a given policy outcome (i n this case, Norwegian membership of the EU), and, on the other, maximising votes and maintaining party cohesion, is focused upon. In the 1972 referen dum on Norwegian membership of the European Community, Labour had failed to achieve any of these objectives. Electoral losses and party splits were av oided in 1994, but the main policy objective - EU membership - was still no t reached. It is difficult to argue, however, that the Labour elite chose o ne goal at the expense of the others. This case study suggests that parties may try to reconcile seemingly incompatible objectives and to avoid choosi ng between goals. In addition, the results underline the importance of orga nisational learning and indicate that the strategies of both leadership and internal opposition should be included in research on party behaviour.