“Quiet” austerity in Norway: just another head of the “neoliberal Hydra”?

Norway, often typologized as a social democratic welfare regime, has a longstanding principle of egalitarianism and equality of citizen’s life outcomes through redistribution of income. However, within this environment there has been considerable demographic, social, economic, and political change occurring, including major changes to the welfare state following the Global Financial Crisis in 2007–8. Neoliberal policies embracing austerity narratives have influenced key areas in the welfare state, the overall effect being increasing inequality in a country hitherto known for its egalitarian values and fairness to all. The focus on such values might be one of the reasons why austerity in Norway can be viewed as ‘quiet’. Norway’s approach to economic management has been quite different to many other countries because to some extent it avoided the harsh austerity policies seen elsewhere. The Oil Fund has allowed Norway to manage its economy without implementing severe cuts in public sector. The cuts made involve underprivileged groups that don´t necessarily protest much and therefore have happened without much public attention. Another of the main reasons for austerity in Norway being ‘quiet’ seems to be the lack of interest from strong interests’ groups and user organizations to actively resist it. In this article we outline some critical areas of austerity politics and policy that have occurred in Norway the last decades. It nonetheless needs to be noted that these processes that undermine the welfare state have not yet been on the scale, or the depth, found in some other countries.