Plurality in Norway

In Norway, volunteers are translating the book *Plurality* in two stages, first rewriting it in plain English and then translating that into Norwegian. The first drafts are made with AI. Eight of the 35 chapters have gone through both stages, but nothing has been published yet.

When you translate a foreign book, does swapping the words alone get it across to readers? A book written for American readers is full of turns of phrase that assume that country's education and experience. In Norway, the people translating Plurality, the book by Audrey Tang and E. Glen Weyl, are tackling this problem head-on.

In short

For now, Plurality's presence in Norway consists almost entirely of one volunteer translation project. A group on GitHub (a website for making documents together) called NorwegianPlurality uses a two-stage method: it first rewrites the English original in "plain English", and then translates that into Norwegian (Bokmål) [1][2].

Eight of the 35 chapters have finished both stages [3]. The first drafts are made with AI, and nothing has been published anywhere yet [4]. The research for this article found no Norwegian-language reviews or news reports discussing the book.

For example

The translation project Pluralitet-Bok (June 2026–). This is a copy (fork) of the book's original repository. From June 2 to 4, 2026, updates under the name Hauk-Morten rewrote eight chapters, from chapter 0-1 to chapter 3-1 (including the preface), in plain English and translated them into Bokmål. From September 13 to 16, updates under the name Snowhawk added a glossary, tools that automatically check the translation, a definition of the intended reader, and a policy on editions [1]. Of the updates under these names, 44 are marked as made together with the AI Claude (11 with Claude Sonnet 4.6 and 33 with Claude Opus 5) [1].

Background: a series in the newspaper Dagbladet (2018). Before the book, Weyl's name had already been introduced in Norway. Aksel Braanen Sterri introduced Radical Markets, the earlier book by Weyl and Eric Posner, in a five-part series. The fifth part considers applying to Norway a voting system in which the cost rises with the square of the number of votes cast (kvadratisk stemmesystem, quadratic voting) [5]. In October of the same year, Weyl came to a debate event in Oslo and argued that big internet companies should pay the people who use them [6]. → Quadratic voting · Radical Markets · Data dignity

In more detail

Why translate in two stages?

The workflow is: English original → plain English (stage 1) → Norwegian (stage 2). One stage of one chapter is treated as one unit of work [2].

The project's working rules explain the reason for two stages: "The American original was written for someone with a different education and a different field of experience, not merely someone speaking a different language — so the text is adapted twice, and the two passes do different work" [2].

The intended reader

The intended reader is a single fictional person: a 45-year-old with a master's degree in a social science, well versed in institutions but with no background in mathematical notation or programming [7]. This profile is built from sources such as statistics on the education and careers of members of the national parliament (Storting). The stated aim is to reach as widely in Norway as Maskiner som tenker, Inga Strümke's book on AI [7].

There are style rules R1 to R9 [7]. For example:

R1: Explain the phenomenon before the name of the term that refers to it
R2: Do not borrow from the language of public administration. Using Norwegian administrative terms would make claims about Norwegian institutions that the original does not make
R4: Introduce a little-known person in one line
R9: Put correspondences with Norwegian circumstances not in the main text but in the preface, glossary and translator's notes

Among the things R9 lists as belonging in the preface, glossary and translator's notes rather than the main text are allmenningen (the commons), dugnaden (neighbors pitching in on shared work), tripartite cooperation between government, trade unions and employers, the online ID BankID and the public services portal Altinn, and NORSAR, which in 1973 became the first ARPANET (the forerunner of the internet) node outside the United States [7].

Edition numbers and the publishing policy

Edition numbers are divided into three types. 0.x is an edition where both stages were done by AI and no person has read it through. 1.x is an edition in which an editor has read and revised every chapter. The last type is one that keeps being updated as many people read it [4]. The numbers are said to show not quality but whether a person has read the text [4].

At present, no edition has been published. On the publishing setup, the documents say: "Not set up, and deliberately so" [8].

A draft of a Norwegian-language page for the book's website plurality.net was also made in December 2025 and merged on the book's side. The subject line of that update was "First AI-translation. First draft, needs human review." Yet as of October 2, 2026, there is no Norwegian page on plurality.net [9].

How terms are chosen

The glossary sets a translation policy for each term [10].

Plurality is "pluralitet". At its first occurrence in each part, the English is kept
The adjective plural is "mangfoldig", with a note of caution where it collides with "mangfold", the translation of diversity
Quadratic voting is "Kvadratisk Stemmegivning", with the English added at first occurrence
Deliberation is "deliberasjon", not "drøfting"
bridging and bonding (relationships that connect and relationships that bind) are to be decided as a pair and have not been decided yet

Points of contact with Norwegian institutions

Norway, too, has practices of participatory democracy that have grown along a different path. In Bergen, 90 citizens chosen by lot deliberated in an online citizens' panel. The research institute NORCE writes that the method was developed by researchers at Stanford University and was being used in Norway for the first time [11].

In addition, Teknologirådet, a public body for technology assessment, chaired EPTA, the network of European parliamentary technology assessment bodies, in 2024 and compiled the report Artificial Intelligence and Democracy. The report was presented in October 2024 at a conference in the national parliament in Oslo [12]. These materials, however, made no mention of Taiwan's vTaiwan or Polis, of Tang, or of Plurality. → Digital democracy

What is debated

The risks of AI first drafts (the project's own view). The working rules call dropped footnotes "the single most common defect in this repo" [2]. Indeed, there are updates restoring missing citations in chapters 2-0 and 3-1 [1].
An example of a hedge disappearing. The stage 1 guide instructs translators to cut hedging that has no content [13]. In chapter 2-2, the original "arguably the most compelling example" became "one of the most compelling examples" in plain English, and "en av de mest overbevisende modellene" (one of the most convincing models) in Norwegian [14][15]. "Arguably" has disappeared, and the form of the claim has changed too.
Rules that do not line up. The working rules say that Taiwan's digital ministry (moda) is not to be turned into a Norwegian ministry [2]. The glossary, however, translates Ministry of Digital Affairs as "Digitaliseringsdepartementet", noting that this follows the way Norwegian ministries are named [10]. How the two are to be reconciled is not stated.
The limits of quadratic voting (2018). Sterri wrote that if people can use part of their votes to vote against parties they dislike, quadratic voting would make things hard for divisive politicians who can count on doing fine if 25 percent like them even though 75 percent hate them [5]. But Sterri also wrote that even with quadratic voting, the old problem remains that in referendums the way the question is framed has great power [5].
Thin sources. Much of what is written here relies on documents the translation project wrote about itself. No outside assessment or Norwegian-language discussion of the book has been found.

Common misunderstandings

That a Norwegian edition is out. No edition has been published. There is no Norwegian page on plurality.net either [4][9].

Where it fits in Plurality

The book mentions the Scandinavian countries several times. Chapter 2-2 notes that the Western left often praises the Scandinavian countries, and then argues that Taiwan has something to offer across the political spectrum [14]. Chapter 4-0 writes that the Scandinavian countries have emphasized "positive freedom of speech," namely that "every citizen regardless of means has a viable path for their voice to be heard" [16]. Chapter 4-5 names the Scandinavian nations, together with Taiwan and Estonia, as countries that pioneered the idea of digital access as a foundational right [17].

The Norwegian translation differs from translations into other languages in that it builds the rewriting of the text for its readers into the translation rules themselves. → Book editions and translations · Terms across languages

Articles on other countries and regions:

Sources

The NorwegianPlurality organization and the update history of Pluralitet-Bok — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality ［CC0］
Working rules of Pluralitet-Bok, AGENTS.md — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality/Pluralitet-Bok/blob/norwegian/AGENTS.md ［CC0］
Progress table of Pluralitet-Bok, progress.tsv — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality/Pluralitet-Bok/blob/norwegian/translation/progress.tsv
Edition policy of Pluralitet-Bok, releases.md — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality/Pluralitet-Bok/blob/norwegian/docs/translation/releases.md ［CC0］
Aksel Braanen Sterri, "Radikale ideer: Med et bedre valgsystem kunne vi forhindret Trump og andre høyrepopulister" (Dagbladet, 2018-08-15, in Norwegian) — https://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/med-et-bedre-valgsystem-kunne-vi-forhindret-trump-og-andre-hoyrepopulister/70102840
InnoMag, "Tech-tenkeren Glenn Weyl: – Derfor bør alle få lønn fra Facebook" (2018-10-26, in Norwegian) — https://www.innomag.no/tech-tenkeren-glenn-weyl-derfor-bor-alle-fa-lonn-fra-facebook/
Intended reader of Pluralitet-Bok, audience.md (in Norwegian) — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality/Pluralitet-Bok/blob/norwegian/docs/translation/audience.md ［CC0］
Publishing policy of Pluralitet-Bok, publishing.md — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality/Pluralitet-Bok/blob/norwegian/docs/translation/publishing.md ［CC0］
Draft of the Norwegian page for plurality.net (2025-12-06) — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality/plurality.net/blob/main/src/site/versions/norwegian.md ［CC0］
Glossary of Pluralitet-Bok, glossary.tsv — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality/Pluralitet-Bok/blob/norwegian/translation/glossary.tsv
NORCE, "Første gang denne metoden brukes i Norge: 90 bergensere har fått unik innflytelse på lokaldemokratiet" (in Norwegian) — https://www.norceresearch.no/aktuelt/forste-gang-denne-metoden-brukes-i-norge-90-bergensere-har-fatt-unik-innflytelse-pa-lokaldemokratiet
EPTA, "Artificial Intelligence and Democracy" (2024-10) — https://media.wpd.digital/teknologiradet/uploads/2024/10/EPTA-report-2024-Web.pdf
Stage 1 guide of Pluralitet-Bok, simplify.md — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality/Pluralitet-Bok/blob/norwegian/docs/translation/simplify.md ［CC0］
Plurality, 2-2 "The Life of a Digital Democracy" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/2-2/eng/ ［CC0］
Norwegian translation of chapter 2-2 in Pluralitet-Bok (in Norwegian) — https://github.com/NorwegianPlurality/Pluralitet-Bok/blob/norwegian/contents/norwegian/2-2-the-life-of-a-digital-democracy.md ［CC0］
Plurality, 4-0 "Rights, Operating Systems and ⿻ Freedom" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/4-0/eng/ ［CC0］
Plurality, 4-5 "Access" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/4-5/eng/ ［CC0］

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