Interparty Spatial Relationships in Norwegian Storting Roll Call Votes*

The purpose of this study is to map interparty spatial relationships embedded in non-unanimous roll call votes recorded during the 1985–86 session of the Norwegian parliament. The analysis is theoretically grounded in the one-dimensional Scandinavian five-party model and a two-dimensional model which assumes that the conventional left–right continuum is intersected by an urban protest/rural traditionalism axis. While the one-dimensional solution which arrays the parties along the conventional left–right continuum is statistically defensible, a two-dimensional solution appears better to reflect the reality of contemporary Norwegian politics in which the post-Second World War welfare-state consensus is being challenged by the Progressive Party. The resulting divisions among the non-socialist parties may preclude a stable center-right governing coalition.