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Liberal Party (Norway)

Norwegian political party

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ500190
Source-derived summary

The Liberal Party (Norwegian: Venstre, lit. 'Left', V; Northern Sami: Gurutbellodat) is a social liberal political party in Norway. It was founded in 1884 and is the oldest political party in Norway. The Liberal Party is positioned on the centre to centre-right of the political spectrum. It is a liberal party which has over time enacted reforms such as parliamentarism, freedom of religion, universal suffrage, and state schooling.

For most of the late 19th and early 20th century, it was Norway's largest and most dominant political party. Later, in the postwar era it lost most of its support and became a smaller party. The party has nevertheless participated in several centrist and centre-right government coalitions in the postwar era and it is aligned with the country's centre-right bloc alongside the Conservative Party, Christian Democratic Party and the Progress Party. Guri Melby has served as the party leader since 2020.

The party was founded in 1884. With support mainly from farmers and progressive members of the bourgeoisie, it was the first political party that came into existence in Norway, and was the dominant governmental party for several decades.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Liberal Party (Norway)” is norwegian political party. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Liberal, Party and Norway, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1884, 2020—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1884-01-28. For this dossier, Liberal, Party and Norway is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “norwegian political party” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q500190. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1884 and 2020.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Liberal Party (Norway)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Liberal Party (Norway) primary sources, Liberal Party (Norway) archive and Liberal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Liberal Party (Norway)”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Liberal Party (Norway)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.