Archive of Ministers
Abstract
The Archive of Ministers consists of data about the Norwegian governments since 1814. Information about the ministers may be accessed either through 'government' or 'ministry' as the overarching structure. All in all the data contain information on three levels:
- Government (e.g. party composition, type of government, cause of resignation)
- Ministry (overview of existing and non-exixting ministries and the persons who were in office)
- Minister (e.g. party affiliation, birth date (death date), Storting activity, education, other employment)
The Search Function
If you are interested in a certain person, the easiest thing to do would be to search for this person directly. However, worth noticing here is that in connection with 'Find person' we have also made a name index that includes all the persons that exist in NSD's Archives of Politicians. In other words: all former and present members (and quite a lot of substitutes) of the Storting are included in this index. With that regard we have made a simple table that systematically indicates whether the indexed persons have taken office as minister and/or state secretary and/or member of the Storting.
About Archive of Ministers
Sources
The Archive of Ministers was subject to updating and improvement in 2007. In this connection, the following sources were mainly used:
About the members of the individual ministries and governments:
- Bætzmann, Frederik (1885): Det Norske Statsraad 1814-1884. Kjøbenhavn
- Debes, Jan (1950): Det norske statsråd 1814-1949. Oslo
- Østang, Øivind (1996): Det norske statsråd 1814-1945. Oslo
- Østang, Øivind (2004): The Norwegian Council of State Since 1814. Oslo
Biografisk informasjon:
- Arntzen, Jon Gunnar og Knut Helle (red.) (1999): Norsk biografisk leksikon. Oslo
- Haffner, Vilhelm (1949): Stortinget og statsrådet 1915-1945. Oslo
- Lindestøl, Tallak (1914): Stortinget og Statsraadet 1814-1914. Kristiania
- Nordby, Trond (red.) (1985): Storting og regjering 1945-1985. Oslo
Furthermore, the Norwegian government's websites in particular, but also the Storting's websites and the internet in general, have been valuable sources. Older editions of both Norwegian, Swedish and Danish biographical encyclopedias have also been used in terms of information on personal data (dates of birth, dates of death) for some of the ministers in the 19th century.
The continuous update of sitting ministers is based on press releases from the Prime Minister's office.
Variable Description
The table provides a continuous overview of the ministers.
There is still some cleaning work to be done in reg_statsråd. For example, we should reduce composite titles such as 'Minister of Audit and Acting Minister of the Armed Forces'. Here, the Audit Minister has taken on a temporary position as Minister of the Armed Forces, and the dates will typically overlap with the time when the person in question is just an ordinary Audit Minister. More transparent would be to add a period of time as Minister of Defense and set the Constituent flag to 1. But it will be a formidable task.
The variables are as follows:
Main index. Continuous internal identifier from the table i_politikere. Is mandatory and unique. Example: Tina Bru is 31610.
Index in table i_regjering. Tells which government this cabinet position applies to. Example: 'ES' stands for Erna Solberg's government.
Indicates ministry. Index in the table i_departementer. Example: The Ministry of the Interior is 21. Is NULL for ministers without portfolio.
Indicates the title and characteristics of the ministers; also marks cases where the minister does not strictly speaking have the Norwegian title of statsråd, such as prime minister and minister of foreign affairs. Index in the table i_statsråd_type. Example: 9 means 'Acting minister'.
Numerical consecutive index in the table i_ministertittel. Is there mandatory and unique.
Is 1 if the minister heads the ministry, otherwise 0.
Party affiliation upon entry into government. Is index in the table i_parti. Is unique for a given date, but overlaps for years when names are changed. Example: 21 gives 'Det Norske Arbeiderparti' in the period 1930-2011, 'Arbeiderpartiet' from 2011.
Date of the minister's appointment regardless of what time of day the change takes place.
Date of the minister's resignation. Counting whole days; if the shift occurs in the middle of the day, the date is set to the day before. Not yet completed service is defined as 09-09-9999.
Special circumstances.
The table contains all members of the Norwegian ad hoc governments.
The representative's (unique) identification number corresponds with the Politician Archive
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Indicates which ad hoc government the person was a member of (cf. variable in Norske_regjeringer_adhoc).
Cf. the administration database.
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If the title of the minister is not 'default' (i.e., 'minister and head of ... department'), the title is indicated in this variable. E.g., 'acting minister,' 'prime minister,' etc.
Auxiliary variable for the output on the web. For example, the variable ensures that the prime minister appears higher on the output page (on the internet) than the social minister. See also documentation of the dataset 'Norwegian Government Members'.
Dichotomous variable where the value zero indicates the interim governments while the value one indicates the governments in Oslo during World War II.
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Any special circumstances regarding the individual's government period are commented in this variable.
| Government | Period |
|---|---|
| Interim government during King Oscar I's trip to Germany (Norwegian members) | 15.07.1852-17.07.1852 |
| Interim government during King Oscar I's first sick leave (Norwegian members) | 11.10.1852-11.04.1853 |
| Interim government during King Oscar I's second sick leave (Norwegian members) | 14.09.1857-23.09.1857 |
| Interim government during King Carl IV's sick leave (Norwegian members) | 12.08.1861-24.08.1861 |
| Interim government during King Oscar II's trip to Germany (Norwegian members) | 26.05.1875-04.06.1875 |
| Interim government during King Oscar II's trip to Russia (Norwegian members) | 06.07.1875-20.07.1875 |
| Interim government during King Oscar II and Crown Prince Gustav's trip to Russia (Norwegian members) | 16.09.1881-25.09.1881 |
| Quisling's first NS government | 09.04.1940-14.04.1940 |
| Administrative Council for the civil administration of the occupied areas | 15.04.1940-24.09.1940 |
| Terboven's commissarial state counselors | 25.09.1940-31.01.1942 |
| Quisling's second NS government | 01.02.1942-07.05.1945 |
| Home Front councilors in Oslo May 1945 | 08.05.1945-13.05.1945 |
The table provides a chronological overview of the Swedish foreign ministers who served in the union between Norway and Sweden.
The variable numbers each entry (foreign minister period) in the table.
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Many of the ministers had three to four first names. For simplicity, this variable therefore indicates the single first name by which the minister was most commonly known.
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Text field where all entries are given the value Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Any special circumstances regarding the individual foreign minister periods are commented in this variable.
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The table contains data about the ministries. The data quality is generally good. The variables are as follows:
Continuous internal identifier. Example: Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (of 1997) is 90.
The government's own identifier. This was published at data.regjeringen.no before the website closed. Afterwards, we can generate it by card name and creation date: DEP_<yyyy>_<yyyy>_<mm>_<dd>, but choose not to since this should be the government's domain. Example: The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (of 1997) is 'DEP_OED_1997_01_01'.
This is the common abbreviation by which each ministry is known. Not all ministries have an abbreviation, especially not the oldest ones, and if there is none, the name is written here in full. The abbreviations are only unique within the same time period. For example, HD can stand for the Ministry of Trade (Handelsdepartementet) (1947-1955) and the Ministry of Health (Helsedepartementet) (2002-2003).
Name of the department.
The department's English name. Not sure if this always is official.
The date the ministry was established.
The date when the ministry was closed. For existing ministries, the to_ date is set to 09-09-9999. As a rule, the end date is set to the day before the establishment date of the new ministry.
Is usually 1, but 0 if it concerns an invalid ministry such as the NS ministries during World War II.
May be completed, possibly in HTML format.
Relatively long explanatory text.
The table i_regjering gives a continuous overview of the governments. The Administrative Council in 1940 is included, but not illegal NS-friendly so-called governments. The table is based on reg_Regjering$ from data.regjeringen.no, which is now closed.
Continuous identifier with embedded accession date. Originally taken from data.regjeringen.no, but currently self-produced. Is mandatory and unique. Example: Per Borten's government is 'REGJ_PB_1965_10_12'.
Short form of identifier without date. Is mandatory and unique. Example: Per Borten's government is 'PB'
The name in plain text. Is mandatory and unique. Example: 'Per Borten's government'
Short form of the name of the government. Example: 'Borten'
The head of the government at the time of formation, index to the table i_politikere. With the exception of some of the first governments, the leader is the same throughout the period.
Title of the person who bears the government's name. Example: 'Prime Minister'
Date, possibly also time, of the government taking office.
Date, possibly also time, of the government's resignation. For the current government, the date is 09/09/9999.
Plain text. Example: 'Flertallsregjering'
Same in English. Example: 'Majority government'
The basis for the government to take office. Example: 'Skifte etter valg'
Same in English. Example: 'Change after general elections'
The reason why the government had to resign. Example: 'Regjeringskrise'
Same in English. Example: 'Government crisis'
The total number of parties that have participated in this government, not necessarily at the same time.
The participating parties are listed here with short names. Example: 'H+Sp+KrF+V'
Same in English. Example: 'Cons.+Cent.+CDP+Lib.'
The participating parties are listed here with their full names. Example: 'Høyre, Senterpartiet, Kristelig Folkeparti og Venstre'
Same in English. Example: 'Conservative Party, Center Party, Christian Democratic Party and Liberal Party'
The participating parties are listed here with an index to the party table. Example: '71,41,51,31'