The aim of this study has been to explain the breakthrough of the green party, Miljøpartiet de Grønne, in the 2013 parliament elections in Norway. This is carried out by an in-depth case study of the party. By using an agency-centered perspective, the assumption is that the party can influence their own ability to achieve entry into parliament. Therefore this study focuses on the party’s actions, specifically the strategies used by the party. I have studied the party’s strategies in three different areas: resources, policies and relations with other parties. This has been carried out by analyzing a large amount of different texts using both qualitative and quantitative methods. My findings show that the party was most successful with their resource and policy strategies. They succeeded in recruiting members and building up the organization of the party, increase the party’s media space and challenge the other parties in environmental policies.

The subject of this study has been organizational change within two Scandinavian green parties – the Swedish Green Party and the Norwegian Green Party. Looking at the organizational changes within these two parties using Robert Michel’s famous concept the “iron law of oligarchy”, I have studied whether these two parties have become more oligarchic after having been elected to the national parliaments of Sweden and Norway respectively. What I have found is that although these two parties still retain much of the original organizational structure that they have had, in particular the Swedish Green Party, change has occurred and seems to be occurring, at least in the Norwegian Green Party, which would indicate that the two parties have become more oligarchic. What I have found is in other words that parties which are elected into their national parliament tend to become more oligarchic during the period following the election – the fact that a party is elected into parliament seems to play a key role in the development towards a more oligarchic party structure in the two cases which I have studied.