In this essay the mass beliefs and attitudes of the Norwegian society will be portrayed and
compared to the “democratic character” of people defined by political scientists.
Beforehand, a short description of the degree of democracy measured by the Freedom
House serves as an objective insight into the conditions of the country.
Lasswell (1951) developed several indicators which signalize a “democratic character”, such
as an open ego, a multi-valued character, confidence in human potentialities and, above all,
freedom from anxiety. According to Almond and Verba (1963), psychological orientations
towards the political system have a crucial impact in terms of stability of the state and its
political objects. Postmaterialist and self-expression values represent additional criteria for a
democratically mature society. All those will be taken briefly into consideration in order to
examine the main question that is tackled here: How “democratically compatible” is the
population of Norway?