The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list proportional representation in nineteen multi-seat constituencies.

Three ombudsmen are directly subordinate to parliament: the Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee and the Office of the Auditor General.

Parliamentarianism was established in 1884, with the Storting operating a form of "qualified unicameralism", in which it divided its membership into two internal chambers making Norway a de facto bicameral parliament, the Lagting and the Odelsting.

The parliament in its present form was first constituted at Eidsvoll in 1814, although its origins can be traced back to the allting, as early as the 9th century, a type of thing, or common assembly of free men in Germanic societies that would gather at a place called a thingstead and were presided over by lawspeakers.

These gradually were formalised so that the things grew into regional meetings and acquired backing and authority from the Crown, even to the extent that on occasions they were instrumental in effecting change in the monarchy itself.

During the mid-13th century, the by then archaic regional assemblies, the Frostating, the Gulating, the Eidsivating and the Borgarting, were amalgamated and the corpus of law was set down under the command of King Magnus Lagabøte.

This jurisdiction remained significant until King Frederick III proclaimed absolute monarchy in 1660; this was ratified by the passage of the King Act of 1665, and this became the constitution of the Union of Denmark and Norway and remained so until 1814 and the foundation of the Storting.

[4]) In September 1940 the representatives were summoned to Oslo, and voted in favour of the results of the negotiations between the presidium and the authorities of the German invaders.

)[4] However, directives from Adolf Hitler resulted in the obstruction of "the agreement of cooperation between parliament and [the] occupation force".

The original idea in 1814 was probably to have the Lagting act as an actual upper house, and the senior and more experienced members of the Storting were placed there.

A standing committee, with members from both the Odelsting and Lagting, would then consider the bill, and in some cases hearings were held.

Most bills were passed unamended by the Lagting and then sent directly to the king for royal assent.

If the Lagting still proposed amendments, the bill would be submitted to a plenary session of the Storting.

A proposal to amend the constitution and abolish the Odelsting and Lagting was introduced in 2004 and was passed by the Storting on 20 February 2007 (159–1 with nine absentees).

Articles 77–79 of the Norwegian constitution specifically grant the King of Norway the right to withhold Royal Assent from any bill passed by the Storting.

[12][13] The members of parliament are allocated into twelve standing committees, of which eleven are related to specific political topics.

The committee discusses important issues related to foreign affairs, trade policy, and national safety with the government.

Parliament has an administration of about 450 people, led by Director of the Storting Marianne Andreassen, who assumed office in 2018.

Parties may nominate candidates from outside their own constituency, and even Norwegian citizens currently living abroad.

Still, a party with a high number of votes in only one constituency can win a seat there even if the nationwide percentage is low.

Unlike most other parliaments, the Storting always serves its full four-year term; the Constitution does not allow snap elections.

[28] Unparliamentary language includes: one-night stand, smoke screen government, pure nonsense, Molbo politics, may God forbid, lie, and "som fanden leser Bibelen".

The building was designed by the Swedish architect Emil Victor Langlet and is built in yellow brick with details and basement in light gray granite.