The Voting Archive 1814–1940
The historical voting archive contains information on issues that were voted on in the Norwegian Parliament between 1814 and 1940. The material was collected by the Department of History at the University of Oslo, led by Ottar Dahl, and was later transferred to NSD “Since the merger in 2022, the database has been managed by Sikt.”
Compared to the Voting Archive from 1979 onward, this archive contains less detailed information about individual votes but still provides valuable insight into the political processes of the period.
About the Voting Archive 1814–1940
This archive contains around 7,500 divided votes from the Storting’s plenary sessions, Odelsting, and Lagting. All votes were conducted by roll call, making it possible to see exactly how each representative voted.
Covering the period from Norway’s first constitutional assemblies to the early years of World War II, the archive offers unique insights into Norwegian political history, party alignments, and parliamentary decision-making in important and often controversial cases.
Content
The archive includes all divided votes with roll call from 1814–1940, that is, cases where representatives disagreed, and each vote was recorded by name.
Historical calculations show that unanimous votes were often far more common than divided ones. For example, in 1893 there were 427 unanimous votes compared to 231 divided votes; in 1896 the numbers were 451 versus 187.
Between 1892 and 1897, roll call votes accounted for about 40% of all divided votes. Based on these figures, the archive covers approximately 20% of all votes during that period.
The use of roll call was not random. According to historian Ottar Dahl (1972), it was applied to cases considered particularly important or controversial, based on political judgement by the Storting’s president or individual representatives. Divided votes without roll calls often had larger majorities, while roll calls tended to be used in cases with sharp political divisions.
After the mid-1920s, roll call became less common, likely due to changes in parliamentary procedures and working methods.
Background
The voting data was collected at the Department of History at the University of Oslo between 1968 and 1972, under the direction of historian Ottar Dahl. The material was initially recorded electronically on punch cards and stored in two separate datasets:
- Representative register: names of all those who voted
- Voting register: how each representative voted in each case
The case descriptions originally existed only in written form. When the material was transferred to NSD (now part of Sikt – the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research), the information was digitised and made machine-readable.
For the period 1857–1940, NSD added:
- Subject codes from the Storting’s thesaurus (also used for modern voting data)
- Identity numbers from the Politician Archive, enabling analyses of voting behaviour by profession, education, party, and geographical affiliation
Data Quality
The quality of the data varies between periods. The Historical Institute did not provide full documentation on the registration process, and no systematic checks have been made against original sources such as Stortingstidende.
Evidence suggests that different individuals worked on the material at different times, which may explain quality variations.
The data was originally delivered in two separate files – one containing representative names and one containing voting records, which were later combined. A separate session-based dataset documents data quality for different periods.
Further analysis is available in John-Erik Ågotnes: Roll Call Votes (NSD Report No. 1, Bergen 1989).
Use
The data can be used for both historical research and political analysis. Examples include:
- Agreement and disagreement indexes: showing how often parties voted the same way or differently
- Political distance measurements: calculating differences between parties or groups
- Cross-sectional analyses: examining voting patterns by period, committee, case type, or representative background
Example
If all members of Party A vote in favour and all members of Party B vote against a proposal, the parties are 100% opposed to that vote. By aggregating such results, researchers can identify political blocs, cooperation patterns, and changes over time.
Sources
- Main source: Stortingstidende
- Other sources: Punch card data and a printed index compiled by Ottar Dahl, University of Oslo
About the Datasets
- EldreVoteringerSak: issues that were voted on
- EldreVoteringerPerson: how each representative voted
- EldreVoteringerDokumentasjon: session-level documentation of data quality
Variable Description
The table contains one record per session and documents the data quality of the older voting material.
In some sessions from 1857 onward, various votes are listed that have been deleted. It appears this may not have happened. It is also uncertain whether these votes should be deleted. This must be checked against Stortingstidende if necessary.
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Documentation of data quality
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Votings where flertall/mindretall do not match the aggregate in the Person-dataset are marked here with the number 1.
Note that it is the thesaurus used by Stortinget for current cases that is used.
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Budget cases (financing cases) are marked with the number 1.
“Person” is the unit in this dataset and contains information about how each individual has voted.
Data quality varies greatly. Most sessions appear to be complete regarding both who voted and what was voted. Some sessions are missing information about who voted, and some about what was voted. Some sessions are missing both (e.g., 1937–40).
See also the section on data quality under the general documentation.
The same serial number is used in the Case dataset.
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Serial number within the voting.
The same identity number is used in the Politician Archive.
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