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Politics in Norway & England

The government in Norway is the country’s executive power. The government is lead by the prime minister and has a number of cabinet members who are chosen by the king himself. Since Norway introduced the parliamentary system in 1884, the government has been counting on the peoples trust to the parliament (Stortinget).

The prime minister and the cabinet members are members of the cabinet. When the gathered government makes a decision, it takes place under the leadership of the king. Usually the members of the cabinet gather with the king every Friday at the royal castle in Oslo to make decisions about the management of the country.

A government can be altered when members of the cabinet are changed or change of ministry. However, the government is considered to be the same as long as the prime minister stays in his position.

The Parliament is the Norwegian national assembly. It has 169 members, and is administrated as a parliamentary system where the government is responsible for the Parliament. The members are elected from the 19 counties for 4-year terms according to a system of proportional representation. The Parliament divides itself into two chambers, the Odelsting and the Lagting for the sole purpose of voting on legislation. Laws are proposed by the government through a Member of the Council of State or by a member of the Odelsting and decided on by the Odelsting and Lagting, in case of repeated disagreement by the joint Parliament. In modern times, the Lagting rarely disagrees and mainly just agrees with the Odelsting's decision.

The Parliament as a national assembly’s main tasks (The Norwegian national constitution §75) are amongst others legislation, allocations (taxes, dues, budgets), control of the executive power (the government), and colloquy of general political questions such as foreign politics and reforms.

From 1814 to 1854 the Parliament was located in Katedralskolen at the corner of Prinsens gate and Dronningens gate in Oslo. From 1854 to 1866 the Parliamentary meetings where held in Universitetets gamle festsal.

The current parliamentary building was drawn by architect Emil Victor Langlet and was opened on the 5th of March 1866. The construction took nearly five and a half years. The parliamentary building went through comprehensive construction works through the years 1951-1959. The lions guarding the gate at the entrance are carved in grorudgranite.

The mainland of Norway is divided into 19 counties. Akershus, Aust-Agder, Buskerud, Finnmark, Hedmark, Hordaland, Møre og Romsdal, Nordland, Nord-Trøndelag, Oppland, Oslo, Østfold, Rogaland, Sogn og Fjordane, Sør-Trøndelag, Telemark, Troms, Vest-Agder, and Vestfold. In addition are the island group Svalbard and the island Jan Mayen.

The counties are divided into 430 municipalities. The municipalities are led by directly elected assemblies, which elect a board of members and a mayor. Some municipalities, most notably Bergen, have a parliamentary system of government, where the city council elects a city government that is responsible for executive functions. Some municipalities are also divided into municipal districts or city districts (again, Bergen is one of these) responsible for certain welfare and culture services. These districts are also headed by political assemblies, in some cases elected directly by the citizens. The municipalities deal with a wide range of planning issues and welfare services, and are mostly free to engage in activities which are not explicitly restricted by law. Lately, the functions of the counties and municipalities have been the subject of debates, and changes may take place in the near future.

The Politics of England form part of the wider politics of the United Kingdom, with England one of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Prior to the Union, in 1707, England was ruled by a monarch and the Parliament of England. Since the Union, England has not had its own government. Because England is by far the largest constituent country, in both population and area, its relationship to the UK is somewhat different from that of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. The English capital London is also the capital of the UK, and English is the dominant language of the UK (not officially, but de facto). Dicey and Morris (p26) list the separate states in the British Islands. "England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark. . . is a separate country in the sense of the conflict of laws, though not one of them is a State known to public international law." But this may be varied by statute. The United Kingdom is one state for the purposes of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882. Great Britain is a single state for the purposes of the Companies Act 1985. Traditionally authors referred to the legal unit or state of England and Wales as "England" although this usage is becoming politically unacceptable in the last few decades. The Parliament of the United Kingdom is located in London, as is its civil service, HM Treasury and most of the official residences of the monarchy. In addition, the state bank of the UK is known as the "Bank of England". Though associated with England for some purposes, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) have their own parliaments, and are not parts of the UK. They are neither technically in the United Kingdom, European Union nor part of England.

Sources: http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regjeringen http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storbritannia We translated the information from Norwegian to English.