Mutual benefits? Norwegian MPs and the lobbyists, 1995 - 2019

For decades after Stein Rokkan’s seminal article on ‘numerical democracy and corporate pluralism’ and his conclusion that ‘votes count, but resources decide’ (1966), Norway was considered to be a strongly corporatist polity with a rather week Parliament. However, since then the corporatist apparatus has been down-scaled and the Parliament, the Storting, has significantly strengthened its position vis-à-vis the executive. Numerous interest groups are denied access to corporatist committees and negotiations with civil servants., and in their efforts to influence public policies they increasingly lobby the Parliament. The point of departure for this paper is the changing frequencies, impacts and consequences of interest group lobbying that have been revealed in earlier studies. The paper presents new data on recent developments in contacts between interest groups and public authorities, the impacts that the lobbyists may have on parliamentary decision-making and other activities of the MPs, and the MPs’ assessment of the consequences that lobbying may have.