The Norwegan party Fremskrittspartiet (The Progress Party) who in last year’s election became the second biggest party in Norway with 22.1% of the votes and who according to the polls have now surpassed the Labor Party to become the biggest party, will soon hold a “Ideology course” (Thanks Ninja economist for the tip) to educate its members about its basic ideology, which is libertarian.
When discussing libertarian thinkers who have inspired their ideology this is what they write:
“Fremtredende liberalistiske ideologer og økonomer kan nevnes John Locke, Adam Smith, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Frederic Bastiat, Friedrich August Hayek, og Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard, og Hans-Hermann Hoppe.”
Translation: “Prominent libertarian ideologists and economists which should be mentioned includes John Locke, Adam Smith, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Frederic Bastiat, Friedrich August Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Murray Rothbard and Hans-Hermann Hoppe”
As I think you understand, the practical policies of the Progress Party are far from being consistently libertarian, although they are more free market oriented than all other major parties in Norway (They were for example the only ones to oppose the nutty feminist law mandating that at least 40% of all board members in Norwegan companies must be women). But it is still interesting to see how they mention Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard and Hans-Hermann Hoppe as people who have inspired their ideology.
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They should get the anti-IP, “pirate” party to join their coalition.
This brings a tear to my eye.
If I had a dollar for every time some American liberal held up Norway to me as the epitome of law, government, economics and civilization, there wouldn’t be a national debt ’cause I could pay it off.
When Norway’s Mises-inspired economic boom reinvigorates all of Europe, that will be a great day. Go Norway!
Ah, but if Norway implemented libertarian policies that reinvigorated all of Europe, the socialists everywhere else would take credit for it and blame Norway for holding them all back.
The Pirate Party is Swedish, iceberg.
I am pretty glad to hear the progress party mentions some great people in the history of economic and philosophical thought. This clearly was not needed to be done nor did it probably get the party any mainstream compliments. That is why I think it is genuine.
That’s probably true. People who want mainstream accolades are supposed to list names like Milton Friedman as influences.
Words are easy to say; it’s actions that we should be concerned with. Ronald Reagan and the Republicans claimed to be for free markets and limited government too, but…
I hope my old friend Elly Therese Thoresen jumps ship from the Hoyre Party(free market) conservative party to the Progress Party. Back in the late 70′s I shared some libertarian ideas from Jefferson with her. Hopefully, she will discover Locke, Mill, Bastiat, Rothbard and Mises. More is at stake in Norway than just un-assimulated anti-democratic muslims threatening their sovereignty, but also the heart and soul of the norwegian people who have grown to accustomed to collective socialism. I have more hope for the Norwegians and Danes. The Swedes have a long way to go.
I hope my old friend Elly Therese Thoresen jumps ship from the Hoyre Party(free market) conservative party to the Progress Party. Back in the late 70′s I shared some libertarian ideas from Jefferson with her. Hopefully, she will discover Locke, Mill, Bastiat, Rothbard and Mises. More is at stake in Norway than just un-assimulated anti-democratic muslims threatening their sovereignty, but also the heart and soul of the norwegian people who have grown to accustomed to collective socialism. I have more hope for the Norwegians and Danes. The Swedes have a long way to go.
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This is great! I read through their website and I must say that their rhetoric is better than both of our major parties. They stray in the area of government healthcare a bit, but ultimately seem to embody classical liberalism pretty well.
A friend of mine asked me awhile back where I would suggest we move if things go further south in the U.S… I’m keeping my eye on Norway.
I know this is an old post but I feel I need to butt in and make this point.
The original post stated that the practical policies of the party is “far from consistently libertarian”. That has to be the understatement of the decade. My stomach turns every time I see these statist, semi-fascist, politically schizoid bunch of power-hungry demagogues are even mentioned in the same sentence as the word “libertarian”.
Now, having unleashed my pathos, a little background;
It was originally founded by Norwegian journalist Anders Lange, and its original name was “Anders Langes party for substantial reductions in taxes, tariffs/fees, and government interventions”. So while the “progress party” clearly has its historical roots in pure libertarianism, today the party line is blurred, to say the least. It is now more rightly classified as a statist republican party in the “charismatic right” tradition. In the nineties several of its leaders had direct ties to national socialist groups. Many prominent people in the party holds literally statist views, bordering on fascism. Their charismatic leader through many years(now having stepped down from this role, but still active in politics), Carl Ivar Hagen, wrote himself in his biography that his original stance that Norway should not nationalize the oil was wrong and a stance he had taken out of ideological blindness.
To cut it short, he is no longer a libertarian, and his party most certainly isn’t and hasn’t been for a very long time. They may well hold their ideological seminars but their real politics tells a different story. They promise lower taxes(that much is true) but a state-capitalist bastard system which includes heavy governmental substitution to privately own hospitals. Basically they want to expand the welfare state which socialist governments have built up in Norway, but to fund it with oil money instead of taxes.
And they are generally always in favour of expanding the available tools of the police and intelligence services, including allowing for the surveillance of citizens not previously convicted of any crime without establishing likelihood of criminal activity before a member of the court.
They are clearly leaning more towards the goal of a corporativist police state than anything which closely resembles true liberalism or libertarianism. They are even in favour of expanding the mandates and powers of the state and especially the police departments and security services, including the security services of “allies” (Washington) operating on Norwegian soil.
Some detractors have founded a smaller party called “the liberal peoples party” (liberal here in the european sense of the term), or DLF. This party is more aligned with libertarian values but they are still a bunch of statist crooks.
I claimed in my previous comment that “detractors have founded a smaller party called “the liberal peoples party” (DLF).
This is wrong. The DLF is a minarchist libertarian party with a marginal member base. While I don’t believe in parliamentary libertarianism I applaud their efforts and I take back my previous statement.
Some detractors and excluded members from “The progress party” tried to take over the DLF some years ago, but failed. The detractor group have since founded the party “Demokratene” (“the Democrats”). This is the group I was referring to as statist crooks.
I made a video as a tribute to Norway after the massacre, the video is based on one of our songs. Follow the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNh-le6qTNk
Regards William
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