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Norway is a constitutional monarchy with hereditary crown by male line but no longer by Salic law, abolished in 1990. Under the Constitution of May 17, 1814, amended several times, the sovereign is at the top of the state, with the honorary title of head both of the Armed Forces and of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church. He exercises executive power through the government (Statsråd), headed by the prime minister, who must enjoy the confidence of Parliament (Storting). The latter, whose members are elected by direct universal suffrage every 4 years, has legislative power. Following a constitutional reform (2009), bicameralism was abolished. Norway, with the electoral reform of 1913, was the first state in the world to have a parliament entirely elected on a universal basis, in which women also took part. Of its 19 counties, Nordland, Troms and Finnmark make up the western section of Lapland. In the second half of the century. XII Episcopal schools were founded which represent the beginnings of the Norwegian educational system. With the Protestant Reformation this system was expanded and so in the following centuries, until in 1809 the scholastic organization freed itself from ecclesiastical protection and acquired a liberal imprint. In the second half of the century. The compulsory schooling was established in the nineteenth century. Norway is one of the few countries in the world where the problem of illiteracy does not exist. Compulsory school goes from 6 to 16 years of age. Teaching is divided into primary school, lasting six years, and secondary school. The latter is divided into a basic three-year period and a subsequent cycle of studies, which can last from one to three years according to the chosen address or professional specialization. Attendance of the entire three-year period of upper secondary school allows access to universities (there are four: in Oslo, 1811;, 1900; Bergen, 1948; Tromsø, 1968) and university-level high schools (schools of architecture, economics, theology, veterinary medicine, agriculture, music and fine arts).

HISTORY: INTERNAL POLITICS SINCE THE WAR

The dominance of the Labor Party, unchallenged until 1965, the year in which a coalition government was formed that remained at the helm of the country until 1971, suffered a further blow in 1972, after the popular referendum that rejected with 53.9% of the vote for Norway to join the EEC (25 September). A left government coalition was reconstituted in 1973, it also successfully passed the 1977 elections, but in September 1981 the electoral victory of the Conservative Party, for the first time since 1928, saw a conservative government headed by Prime Minister Kåre Willoch. According to globalsciencellc, the Labor Party returned to power again in 1986 with a minority government formation led by Ms Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway was preparing to face a period of political instability, characterized by the alternation of government coalitions and the growing incidence in the internal debate of the issues of economic management. In the meantime, the approach to the EEC dictated by the decision to link the rate of the crown to the ECU (October 1990), in 1992 induced the Parliament to request membership of the European Community, a step disavowed by the results of the consultative referendum of 1994 which revealed the very strong hostility of the electorate to the process of European integration. In October 1996, when Prime Minister Brundtland, King Harald V, who succeeded his father the sovereign Olaf V who died in January 1991, resigned for personal reasons, he appointed T. Jagland, leader of the Labor Party, to head the government. The following year, following the political elections, which had marked a loss of consensus on the part of the Social Democrats, Jagland was forced to resign. Christian Party leader Kjell Magne Bondevik was appointed head of the new minority government, later replaced with a royal appointment in March 2000 by the Prime Minister of the Labor Party Jens Stoltenberg. Soon, however, even these, supporters of the system of welfare, had to leave office: the political elections took place in September 2001, they decreed a clear defeat of the Labor Party and rewarded the Conservative Party of Jan Petersen, promoter of a reduction in taxes to allow greater internal productive investments. Subsequently, the new government was formed, composed of a center-right coalition, led by the former premier Kjell Magne Bondevik, which in the two-year period 2002-2003 enjoyed international success with the mediation work carried out to resolve the situation of civil war in Sri Lanka. In November 2003, however, Norway suspended this mediation following disagreements with the Sri Lankan leadership. In 2005 the political elections were won by the center-left parties and Jens Stoltenberg was appointed head of the government. In 2007 the Parliament amended the Constitution by abolishing bicameralism; the new single-chamber system will be applied starting from the elections of September 2009, won, but with a difference of a few seats from the center-left colalition led by Prime Minister J. Stoltenberg. In 2011 the country was devastated by terrible attacks carried out by the extremist Anders Brevick, which caused the death of 77 people. In September 2013, the center-right coalition led by Erna Solberg won the political elections.