Frederik Stang - Politician

Politician

In 1846, Stang became the most senior civil servant in the newly formed (and no longer existent) Domestic Ministry (Innenlandsdepartementet). He served in this position until 1856, and his tenure was characterized by tireless efforts to modernize Norway's economic infrastructure. In addition to improving the road network, harbors, canals, and lighthouses, he was in great measure responsible for Norway and Scandinavia's first railroad, from Oslo to Eidsvoll. He also worked hard to elevate the importance and function of agriculture in Norway, initiating the formation of a university-level school of agriculture, commissioned travelling agrarians, and encouraged better breeding among Norwegian farm animals. Stang published a long series of articles on important constitutional issues and Stang presented his fundamental political program. His starting point was that Norway had a "democratic-monarchy" form of government, where the Parliament was an expression of popular will but Stang wondered why the Constitution had been a subject to a restrictive and constraining power of the King as the main leader of the nation. Stang saw the dangers of the development of a sclerotic, bureaucratic system and pointed out the need for interaction between the will of the people and the government's superior insight. The so-called "Almennvilje(n)" and should be the moving force. His view was a sort of democratic elitism, as historians such as Rune Slagstad aptly describes it. The Government should by their educational expertise and their prerogatives ensure that decisions are systematically made public, and not only was the result of chance or narrow self-interests.