Explaining major policy change: How the fear of greater external perturbations enabled electricity subsidies in Norway

Following the energy crisis in 2022, there were widespread calls for a change in electricity market policies across Europe. Several European countries introduced temporary emergency measures, compensating consumers for high energy costs. After three years with much turbulence around electricity prices, ‘Norway price’ was adopted in June 2025. Consequently, Norwegian households went from being the most exposed to volatile electricity prices, to becoming fully hedged towards whole-sale market prices through a fixed, subsidized retail price. The article investigates how and why the Norway Price came about. We use various qualitative data and trace the policy process behind the shift in policy paradigm. Seeking to understand whether this change originated from a change in the belief system of key policy actors or as a shift of main coalitions in the policy system, we draw on the concepts of the advocacy coalitions framework. Through interviews and a comprehensive assessment of consultation responses on Norway Price and other relevant documents, we identified both how and why policy core beliefs and advocacy coalitions changed. Specifically, we trace the mechanisms that eventually caused a shift in beliefs. The study sheds light on why this crisis had such a large effect in Norway compared to other European countries that experienced the same price shock. It also explains why the energy crisis resulted in this particular policy change more than two years after electricity prices reached their peak. We develop an analytical framework which includes not only the mechanisms, but also the contextual conditions when explaining the shift in preferences. We argue that this framework could be helpful for other scholars that endeavour at explaining policy changes.