The Capitalist Party ( Norwegian

Bokmål Bokmål () (, ; ) is one of the official written standards for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is by far the most used written form of Norwegian today, as it is adopted by 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. There is no cou ...

: ''Liberalistene'';

Nynorsk Nynorsk (; ) is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (''Landsmål''), parallel to the Da ...

: ''Liberalistane''; "The Liberals") is a

political party in Norway This article lists political parties in Norway. Norway has a multi-party system with numerous political parties, in which no party can easily gain a majority of the 169 legislative seats. Parties may cooperate to form coalition governments. His ...

. Founded in 2014 and officially registered in 2016, the party has established chapters in all counties and several municipalities throughout Norway. Their ideological platform advocates for a

minimal state A night-watchman state, also referred to as a minimal state or minarchy, whose proponents are known as minarchists, is a model of a state that is limited and minimal, whose functions depend on libertarian theory. Right-libertarians support it ...

, with governing principles based on

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constitutionalism Constitutionalism is "a compound of ideas, attitudes, and patterns of behavior elaborating the principle that the authority of government derives from and is limited by a body of fundamental law". Political organizations are constitutional to ...

and

free market In economics, a free market is an economic market (economics), system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of ...

economic doctrine. The party is led by its central board (''Sentralstyre''), which has been chaired by Arnt Rune Flekstad since 2022. The party's

youth wing A youth wing is a subsidiary, autonomous, or independently allied front of a larger organization (usually a political party but occasionally another type of organization) that is formed in order to rally support for that organization from members ...

is the Capitalist Youth ('' Liberalistisk Ungdom''), currently led by Carl Fredrik G. Løken. In

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, the party took part in its first parliamentary election, where it participated through every

electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

in Norway. Two years later, it took part in its second municipal election in all

counties A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

, 42

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, and 7 out of 15 city districts in

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

Platform

Based on classical liberalism and

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a Europe, European Intellect, intellectual and Philosophy, philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained th ...

philosophies, the party advocates for a

, where the responsibility of government is limited to administering the

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

, and

justice system The contemporary national legal systems are generally based on one of four major legal traditions: civil law, common law, customary law, religious law or combinations of these. However, the legal system of each country is shaped by its unique hi ...

. The Capitalist Party believes that the state should be prohibited from compelling its electorate, and exists only to protect individuals from aggression, theft, and fraud. The essence of the Capitalist Party's

policies Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an orga ...

relies on voluntary solutions, opposed to government mandated solutions. It firmly believes that voluntary solutions provide a better, cheaper and more effective alternative when providers of goods and services must compete in a market free of

coercion Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to i ...

. In accordance with the party's motto, the foundation of this platform holds that an individual owns his or her own life, is responsible for his or her decisions and prosperity, and that each has the inherent right to autonomously pursue his or her private interests to the extent that those pursuits do not violate the

rights Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

of another. With convictions firmly rooted in the values of Western constitutionalism, the Capitalist Party believes in the separation of powers between the three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. This system of

checks and balances The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state power (usually law-making, adjudication, and execution) and requires these operations of government to be conceptually and institutionally distinguishabl ...

will, according to the party, ensure that personal freedoms are secure and will prevent the rise of

statism In political science, statism or etatism (from French, ''état'' 'state') is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy, especially in regard to taxation ...

. Economically, the party is dedicated to ''

laissez-faire ''Laissez-faire'' ( , from , ) is a type of economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies or regulations). As a system of thought, ''laissez-faire'' ...

'', which advocates for a

, devoid of invasive regulations and taxation. The party views individual sovereignty as an inalienable natural condition, and holds that regulatory practices impede upon self-determination and

self-ownership Self-ownership, also known as sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty, is the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controlle ...

, thereby inhibiting individual freedom and innovative productivity. To that end, people should collaborate freely, under peaceful and voluntary conditions, without the coercion of state intervention.

Organisation and structure

The Capitalist Party was established in 2014. Headquartered in

, the party is organized in every Norwegian county. National leadership serves on the Central Executive Committee (''sentralstyre''), which currently includes

leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

Arnt Rune Flekstad, political deputy Jan-Øyvind Lorgen, and

party secretary In politics, a party secretary is a senior official within a political party with responsibility for the organizational and daily political work. In most parties, the party secretary is second in rank to the party leader (or party chairman). In s ...

Oddbjørn Sjursen. Members constitute the party's legislative body, selecting leadership and protocols at the annual regional (''årsmøte'') and national (''landsmøte'') conventions. The party's

is The Capitalist Youth ('' Liberalistisk Ungdom''). Established in 2004, The Capitalist Youth was originally affiliated with the Liberal People's Party until transitioning to the Capitalist Party in 2014.

National leadership

Recent history

During its first national convention, the Capitalist Party declared support for the creation of

Liberland Liberland, also known as the Free Republic of Liberland, is a micronation promoted by Czech right-libertarian politician and activist Vít Jedlička, who began claiming in 2015 an uninhabited stretch of floodplain on the Croatian bank of the ...

, a

micronation A micronation is a polity, political entity whose representatives claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by any sovereign state. Micronations are classified separately from list o ...

founded by

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libertarian

Vít Jedlička Vít Jedlička (; born 6 September 1983) is a Czech right-wing libertarian politician, publicist, and activist. He was the chairman of the Party of Free Citizens in the Hradec Králové Region and serves as the founder and chairman of the Czech ...

from the

Party of Free Citizens A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature ...

. In March 2015, the Capitalist Party gathered the amount of constituent signatures required by the state to participate in Oslo's 2015

municipal elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct var ...

, where it received 458 votes. They held their second national congress in Oslo, April 2016. The third national congress was held a year later, also in Oslo, April 2017. The same year the party participated in its first national election for seats in parliament, with full coverage of all possible election districts in the country. It received 5,599 votes, equal to 0.2% of the total votes. During late 2017 and 2018, the Capitalist Party developed national guides for political programs with local county and district scopes, to be used as a foundation by the local chapters as a baseline, for their local political programs. They were ratified by the fourth national congress. In 2019 the Capitalist Party participated in its second municipal elections, with full coverage of all possible counties (fylke) and 42 municipalities (kommune) in the country. The Oslo Chapter of the party also covered 7 out of 15 city districts. During the 2019 national convention the party changed its organizational structure from having just a deputy leader, to now having a political deputy and a deputy leader.

Per Sandberg Per Sandberg (born 6 February 1960) is a Norwegian politician for the Capitalist Party and formerly the Progress Party who served as the Norwegian Minister of Fisheries from 2015 to 2018. Sandberg was a member of the Norwegian parliament from ...

, formerly Minister of Fisheries, MP and deputy leader of the Progress Party joined the Capitalist Party during their sixth national congress in Oslo, 13 September 2020. The 2020 national congress also finalized a new national political program, aiming to clarify positions of the party on political direction and issues in the coming parliamentary period from 2021 to 2025.

Election history

Party Congresses

* 0. (founding congresse) 7 april 2014

, Bjerke * 1. landsmøte 2015 9 may

* 2. landsmøte 2016 29–30 April * 3. landsmøte 2017 29 April * 4. landsmøte 2018 28–29 April

* 5. landsmøte 2019 27–28 April Eventhallen * 6. landsmøte 2020 12 september

, Løren * 7. landsmøte 2021 5–6 June * 8. landsmøte 2022 23–24 April

Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology () is located in Oslo, Norway. The museum is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage. History The museum as an institution was founded in 1914 as a part of the commemorati ...

* 9. landsmøte 2023 22–23 April

Kristiansand Kristiansand is a city and Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Agder county, Norway. The city is the fifth-largest and the municipality is the sixth-largest in Norway, with a population of around 116,000 as of January 2020, following th ...

* 10. landsmøte 2024 27–18 April

References

External links

* {{Norwegian political parties 2014 establishments in Norway Classical liberal parties Eurosceptic parties in Norway

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Liberal parties in Norway Libertarian parties Political parties established in 2014 Political parties in Norway