1884–1905

The oldest political party in Norway is the Liberal Party, which was formed in 1884. Shortly afterwards, the Conservative Party was formed in opposition. The main political cleavage at the time was the issue of parliamentarism, with Liberals in favor and Conservatives in opposition. Until 1903, Norway was, for all intents and purposes, a two-party system;^[1] the smaller Moderate Liberal Party joined the Conservatives in a de facto permanent electoral coalition from the 1891 election.

1905–1945

During the first years of the 20th century, major electoral shifts took place. In 1903, the leftist Labour Party gained its first five MPs, after having captured 10% of the national vote. For the 1921 elections, the former two-round, single-member district system was replaced with proportional representation,^[2] allowing for further gains for medium-sized parties such as Labour and the Farmers' Party, which had been formed the previous year. In 1927, Labour surged to first place nationally, a position it has held in every single election since then. In 1928, they formed their first government, ending the decades-long power-alteration between Liberals and Conservatives. This government, headed by Christopher Hornsrud, was short-lived, however; it lasted a mere 18 days.^[3] The Farmers' Party followed suit, sitting in government briefly from 1931 to 1933, under Peder Kolstad and Jens Hundseid. Despite the surge of previously minor parties, the Liberals and Conservatives retained significance, with Johan Ludwig Mowinckel (1933–1935) serving as the last Liberal prime minister to date. With the onset of World War II, Johan Nygaardsvold from the Labour Party served as de jure prime minister for a decade, from 1935 to 1945.

During the Nazi occupation of Norway, political opposition to the collaborationist regime of Vidkun Quisling and the Nasjonal Samling party was silenced and prosecuted; Nygaardsvold's cabinet went into exile in London in 1940, and did not return before 1945.^[4][5]

1945–2001

From the first post-war elections in 1945 until the 1961 elections, the Labour Party held an absolute majority in parliament, with its Einar Gerhardsen serving as prime minister for, in total, 17 years and 17 days. For most of this period, Norway was generally regarded as a dominant-party system, with the divided opposition, consisting of Liberals, Conservatives, Centrists, Christian Democrats and occasionally Communists, unable to match Labour. It was first in 1963, in the aftermath of the Kings Bay Affair, that the Conservative John Lyng was able to take power with support from the other non-socialist groups. With the gradual decline of the Labour Party, opposition figures such as Per Borten (Centrist), Lars Korvald (Christian Democrat) and Kåre Willoch served as prime ministers at various points during the latter half of the 20th century. 1973 saw the advent of anti-establishment parties such as Anders Lange's Party and the Socialist Electoral League, which would later become the right-wing Progress Party and Socialist Left, respectively. Both of these groups remained relatively isolated on the political scene for the subsequent decades; the Socialist Left did not enter government before 2005, while the Progress Party was not included in a centre-right pact before in 2013.

2001–present day

The parliamentary election in 2001 saw the collapse of the Labour Party's traditionally constantly large lead over non-socialist parties; they took a mere 24% of votes – a loss of 11 points – against 21% for the Conservatives of Jan Petersen. The short-lived Cabinet Stoltenberg I, a Labour government in office since 2000, stepped down in favor of a centre-right coalition of Liberals, Conservatives and Christian Democrats, led by the latter's Kjell Magne Bondevik. Following the 2005 election, the centre-left Red-Green Coalition won a majority in parliament, with Jens Stoltenberg returning as prime minister, and serving until 2013.

The 2013 election provided the bloc of the Conservative Erna Solberg a clear parliamentary majority, with 96 of the 169 seats in parliament. She formed a government with the Progress Party of Siv Jensen, breaking the latter's decades-long isolation from the other centre-right parties.^[6] Four years later, the centre-right parties managed to retain the majority in parliament with 88 of the 169 seats. Solberg continued to serve as prime minister, with different combinations of government coalition partners, all four parties at some time were part of Solberg Cabinet. In the most recent election of 2021, the result swung in strong favour of the centre-left parties who gathered 100 of 169 seats in the Storting. This led to a new government with Jonas Gahr Støre as prime minister, consisting of the Labour party and the Centre party.

Parties currently in Parliament

Party				Founded	Ideology	Position	Leader	Affiliation		2021 parliamentary election		2019 Norwegian local elections
								International	European	MPs	'21 election vote share	Municipal councils	County councils	'19 election vote share
	Ap		Labour Party Arbeiderpartiet	1887	Social democracy	Centre-left	Jonas Gahr Støre	PA	PES	48 / 169	26.3%	2,583 / 9,344	148 / 574	24.8%
	H		Conservative Party Høyre	1884	Liberal conservatism	Centre-right	Erna Solberg	IDU	EPP	36 / 169	20.4%	1,488 / 9,344	107 / 574	20.1%
	Sp		Centre Party Senterpartiet	1920	Nordic agrarianism	Centre	Trygve Slagsvold Vedum	None	None	28 / 169	13.5%	2,265 / 9,344	106 / 574	14.4%
	Frp		Progress Party Fremskrittspartiet	1973	Right-wing populism	Right-wing to far-right	Sylvi Listhaug	None	None	21 / 169	11.6%	701 / 9,344	55 / 574	8.2%
	SV		Socialist Left Party Sosialistisk Venstreparti	1975	Democratic socialism	Left-wing	Kirsti Bergstø	None	NGLA	13 / 169	7.6%	459 / 9,344	34 / 574	6.1%
	R		Red Party Rødt	2007	Socialism	Left-wing to far-left	Marie Sneve Martinussen	None	None	8 / 169	4.7%	193 / 9,344	20 / 574	3.8%
	V		Liberal Party Venstre	1884	Social liberalism	Centre	Guri Melby	LI	ALDE	8 / 169	4.6%	264 / 9,344	16 / 574	3.9%
	MDG		Green Party Miljøpartiet De Grønne	1988	Green politics	Centre-left	Arild Hermstad	GG	EGP	3 / 169	3.9%	310 / 9,344	36 / 574	6.8%
	KrF		Christian Democratic Party Kristelig Folkeparti	1933	Christian democracy	Centre to centre-right	Olaug Bollestad	CDI	EPP	3 / 169	3.8%	411 / 9,344	25 / 574	4.0%
	PF		Patient Focus Pasientfokus	2021	Direct democracy	Single-issue	Irene Ojala	None	None	1 / 169	0.2%	0 / 9,344	0 / 574	did not participate

Non-parliamentary parties with elected local representatives

Non-parliamentary parties with no elected representation

Defunct parties