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This article contributes to the literature on party appeals to social groups by introducing a new dataset on group and policy appeals in Scandinavia (2009–2015). In addition to coding to what social groups parties appeal, we collected information on what policies parties offer for the groups they mention and what goals and instruments they specify for such policies. The latter advance makes it possible to present new insights on the extent to which group appeals are actually substantial and meaningful. We find that left, centre and right parties appeal to broad demographic categories rather than class. There are almost no appeals to the middle class, although the frequent reference to a category 'all' can be interpreted as a functional equivalent for middle-class appeals. Finally, parties clearly still make substantial policy proposals and address concrete policy problems, but with only small differences in such appeals across the left–right spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The media coverage of immigration serves as an important test for modern democracies' ability to handle difficult public issues. Systematic and comparative studies over longer time periods are, however, still rare. This is deeply unfortunate as the nature of both immigration and the press systems vary considerably not only across nations but also over time. This article charts the immigration debate in seven Scandinavian newspapers from the birth of modern immigration in the early seventies to the present-day situation. While supporting claims about a general historical shift towards a more problematizing and cultural discourse in Scandinavia, the analysis also identifies major differences in how countries, publications, and genres have handled this complex issue, which brings out fundamental dilemmas for both modern welfare states and journalists. Using the method of multiple correspondence analysis and subsequent cluster analysis, the article also demonstrates how historical press coverage can be fruitfully studied using Geometric Data Analysis as an alternative to frequentist methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article traces the life cycles of the Nordic populist parties by exploring the relationship between media coverage and contemporary populist parties in Finland (Finns Party), Sweden (Sweden Democrats), Norway (Norwegian Progress Party) and Denmark (Danish People's Party). Empirically the study is based on a content analysis of 3337 journalistic articles published in the leading quality and popular newspapers of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark during the first parliamentary elections of the 2010s. The analysis confirms the life cycle model introduced inThe Media and Neo-Populism. A Contemporary Comparative Analysisedited by Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Julianne Stewart, and Bruce Horsfield (2003, Praeger, Westport, CT), which found that parties in their insurgent phase gained more media attention than parties in their established phase. This study found populism currently a more important topic in Finland and Sweden, where populist movements were entering parliament, whereas in Norway and in Denmark, after long-term success, the domestic populist parties had become more mainstream and their media attention normalized. The popular newspapers tended to be more positive about populist parties than quality papers. However, these results can be explained partly by journalistic routines and by country-specific political conditions. Thus, further research is needed to prove the life cycle model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Support parties play a crucial, but under-exposed, role under minority rule. They secure the government’s place in office and exercise policy influence through legislative coalitions. This article examines whether support parties are unfettered by the liabilities of policy responsibility. Incumbents struggle with the cost of ruling in elections and in day-to-day party and issue competition. Support parties, lacking the formal responsibility of office, could arguably escape the negative consequences of policy influence. Two studies illustrate this mechanism. First, I find that Scandinavian support parties that exercise policy influence through participation in budget coalitions avoid electoral losses. However, unlike opposition parties from the government bloc that do not participate in budget coalitions, support parties are unable to increase their vote share. Second, by looking more closely at one support party and analysing its agenda-setting behaviour in response to media attention, I find that support parties, unlike incumbents and like opposition parties, are able to politicise ‘winning issues’ from the news. Despite occasional trade-offs due to their proximity to power, support parties are favourably positioned in party competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the Nordic New Left. It mentions the welfare state's tradition which is distinguished by equal income distribution, labor union and superior universal services. It also notes the liberalization of Nordic economies during the neoliberal tide involving financial deregulation, welfare systems and private government businesses.

Higher levels of government expenditures and more regulation naturally invite corruption, because they provide the opportunity for government officials to be paid off for regulatory favors, subsidies, and government contracts. Some countries have relatively large governments but lower levels of corruption. Scandinavian countries offer examples. While institutional differences may explain some of the cross-country differences in corruption, the most consistent relationship is that high levels of regulation are associated with more corruption. When looking at the effect of the size of government, it is the regulatory state, rather than the productive or redistributive state, that is associated with corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The knowledge economy, deindustrialization, and the decline of Fordism have undermined the economic complementarities that once existed between skilled and semiskilled workers. The result has everywhere been a decline in coordinated wage bargaining and unionization and a notable rise in labor market inequality. Yet, the political responses have been very different across advanced democracies. While labor markets for part-time and temporary employment have been deregulated across the board, some countries have compensated losers through increased cash transfers and active labor market programs and others have allowed inequality and insider-outsider divisions to grow deeper. This article argues that the divergent government responses reflect differences in underlying electoral coalitions, and that these in turn mirror the structure of party and electoral systems. The authors support their argument with evidence for government responses to economic shocks in the period 1980 to 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nordic countries – including Iceland – have been portrayed in the political-science literature as consensual democracies, enjoying a high degree of legitimacy and institutional mechanisms which favour consensus-building over majority rule and adversarial politics. In this explorative article the author argues that consensus politics, meaning policy concertation between major interest groups in society, a tendency to form broad coalitions in important political issues and a significant cooperation between government and opposition in Parliament, is not an apt term to describe the political reality in Iceland during the second half of the 20th century. Icelandic democracy is better described as more adversarial than consensual in style and practice. The labour market was rife with conflict and strikes more frequent than in Europe, resulting in strained government–trade union relationship. Secondly, Iceland did not share the Nordic tradition of power-sharing or corporatism as regards labour market policies or macro-economic policy management, primarily because of the weakness of Social Democrats and the Left in general. Thirdly, the legislative process did not show a strong tendency towards consensus-building between government and opposition with regard to government seeking consultation or support for key legislation. Fourthly, the political style in legislative procedures and public debate in general tended to be adversarial rather than consensual in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Why do certain ministers remain in their post for years while others have their time in office cut short? Drawing on the broader literature on portfolio allocation, this article argues that the saliency of individual portfolios shapes ministerial turnover. The main argument is that ministerial dismissals are less likely to occur the higher the saliency attributed to the ministerial portfolio since ministers appointed to important posts are more likely to have been through extensive screening before appointment. Importantly, it is also posited in the article that the effect of portfolio salience is conditioned by government approval ratings: when government ratings are on the decline, prime ministers are less likely to reshuffle or fire important ministers than when approval ratings are improving. To test these claims, Cox proportional hazards models are applied to a new dataset on ministerial turnover in Scandinavia during the postwar period. The results strongly support the proposition that portfolio saliency matters for ministerial survival, and that this effect is moderated by government popularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nordic states are traditionally regarded as consolidated and stabile democracies. Most indexes on democracy and democratization set out the Nordic states as some of the most advanced democracies in the world. These states have a reputation of being good providers of political rights and civil liberties for their people. While most studies on conditions for rights and liberties have focused on less democratic states, this article explores potential democratic challenges within the Nordic consolidated democracies based on statistics provided by the Freedom House Index. It is argued that there are democratic challenges in two dimensions of civil liberties: the rule of law and personal autonomy. However, these challenges of civil liberties are only found in two of the Nordic states, Denmark and Iceland, both with continuing limitations in civil liberties over the last years. In addition, this study also identifies three contexts in which these democratic challenges are prominent. While international insecurity has had impact on all Nordic states countries, immigration challenges have been more prominent in Denmark compared to years of economic stress in Iceland. These results shed new light on the traditional knowledge about the Nordic states being consolidated democracies without democratic challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employees' pro-social motivation has been shown to be positively related to job satisfaction, especially when the perceived usefulness of the job to society and other people is high. There is, however, a lack of analyses which include both public and private employees, and it has not yet been studied whether the relationships are robust across welfare state regimes. This study therefore examines the moderated relationship between pro-social motivation and job satisfaction. Using data from the cross-national 2005 ISSP survey (14 countries, N = 10,630), it confirms that the relationship between pro-social motivation and job satisfaction is moderated by perceived usefulness of the job for society and other people. Usefulness again depends on the individual's employment sector (public versus private), and this public-private difference in perceived usefulness also varies between different welfare state regimes. This indicates that sector differences in how pro-social motivation affects job satisfaction depends on the broader institutional context, and the article therefore contributes with important knowledge for the recruitment and retention of motivated and satisfied employees in a period of changing public-private responsibilities in the provision of welfare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article surveys research on the political systems of the countries of the Baltic Sea region. The author highlights that source materials and data for these countries is widely available and easily accessible and therefore lends itself particularly well to comparative government scholarship. Examples provided include Scandinavia, the Baltic states, and Poland.

This article analyses the performance of the political parties in each of the 103 general elections staged in the five Nordic states between 1944 and 2011. It follows the work of Jan Sundberg by initially focusing on the three ‘pole parties’ that emerged from the struggle between labour and capital (Social Democrats versus Conservatives) on the one hand and between rural and urban economies (Agrarians versus Conservatives) on the other and considers the continuing validity of his conclusion that there has been ‘a remarkable stability among the three pole parties’. This leads Sundberg to characterise Scandinavia as ‘an enduring party system’. Whilst the evidence continues to point to significant ‘core persistence’, there have been a number of ‘big bang’ elections and a striking rise in support for parties in the ‘Others’ category (presently over two-fifths of the active electorate in Norway and Finland and over three-fifths in Iceland). The central question therefore is: What does the significant growth in this category indicate about the nature of electoral party system change in Scandinavia? The argument advanced is that significant core persistence (based on the pole-party vote share) should not conceal significant support for new parties, support which has vested the party systems on mainland Scandinavia with increased polarisation and an added dimensionality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article builds on lessons from Denmark and the Nordic area to offer a novel and comprehensive logic of action within the emerging political economy that may be used to assess the possible new roles that unions can take on. The authors argue that unions are capable of “civilizing” globalization and current forms of governance by becoming responsible for pushing for a governance regime in a new and more egalitarian direction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the concept of ecological institutionalism, or the integration of ecology and sustainability into political operations, as practiced in Scandinavia. According to the author, Scandinavian countries have become global leaders in this practice by including ecological needs in state definitions and measurements of prosperity and modeling state environmental policies for the rest of the world. Details on eco-entrepreneurship in Norway and Denmark and eco-governance in Finland and Sweden are presented. Other topics include social engineering, eco-capitalism, and innovation.

Denmark, Norway and Sweden are still among the most corporatist democracies in the world. Although corporatism has declined in Scandinavia over the last decades, it still exists, albeit at a lower level. Based on comparative and longitudinal data, we argue that this is a consequence of the disruption of some of the prerequisites to corporatist exchange. Neither governments nor the relevant interest groups in Scandinavia control what their exchange partner desires to the same extent as they did during the heyday of corporatism. Despite the involvement of different factors in the three countries, the main pattern is the same. Consequently, the character of state-interest group relations in Scandinavia is not as distinctive as it used to be. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editors discuss various reports published within the issue including one on the changing patterns of Nordic governance by B. Guy Peters, one on the formation of strategic regions among small-and medium-sized municipalities in Norway by Jon Pierre, and one on the regional economic development policies in Norway and Sweden by Hanssen and colleagues.

The article focuses on the Nordic countries' approaches to the welfare state. It explores some policy reforms that may prove unpopular if implemented, such as policies that follow the neo-liberal principles of introducing more means-tested and needs-based policies, and reducing the level of taxation. Also examined are the ideals of compassion and solidarity as the key values of welfare in 21st century Nordic politics.

The paper deals with examples of reconstructing the significance of Northern Europe (Norden) in the post-modern social reality. After decades of being regarded as a trailblazer of the social modernisation project from the 1960 to the 1980s, the Nordic societal model and the Nordic identity deriving from it experienced a period of crisis in the beginning of the 1990s. As noted by a leading Danish specialist of international relations, the past ideas and self-images of being better than Europe, upon which the Scandinavian model had been founded, started to give way to fears of the Nordic area becoming a periphery in the new geopolitical setting after the Cold War. The European Union and the Baltic Sea region became the nodal co-ordinates of the discourse that aimed at counteracting the alleged peripherization of this area. The paper attempts to point at the actors and sketch the scope of the discourses that contributed to the process of construction of the new identity as a part of the emerging Baltic Sea region identity. This involved reshaping of the Nordic social and geographical space of reference and reconstructing nodal points of the Nordic identity in a post-modern fashion. Institutional and individual actors that constructed the new reality are presented along with the new structures that have arisen as a result of their actions. Particular attention has been paid to the political agenda that made regionalization in the Baltic Sea area a prominent theme of the Nordic identity formation after the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an examination into the political decisions of Denmark in 2003 to cooperate with the Iraq War and its consequences on the tradition of the Scandinavian model of international relations. Details are given describing the diplomatic history of Scandinavia since World War II, noting its contributions to peaceful resolution and diplomacy over armed conflict. The fundamental doctrines of the Scandinavian Model are then outlined specifically. The author criticizes the decisions of the Danish monarchy and suggests that the nation is rejecting its former diplomatic principles.

The article discusses the similarities between the U.S. and Nordic governments in addressing or responding to financial crises. It examines the causes of the banking crisis experienced by the Nordic countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s and how it relates to the financial crisis experienced in the U.S. from 2008-2009. It concentrates on the responses of both U.S. and Nordic governments and defines the meaning of crisis.

This article investigates the role of the Vietnam War in Danish and Norwegian politics. We argue that Danish and Norwegian membership in NATO and an unstable parliamentary situation may explain why these countries, unlike Sweden, did not take on the lead in the international protest against the war. Non-socialistic coalitions came to power in Norway and Denmark in the latter half of the 1960s which to an extent explains why the social democratic parties in both countries became more critical of the US. By the end of the 1960s, foreign policy as well as public attitudes towards the war converged in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and in all three countries powerful protest movements emerged that were remarkably similar. The Vietnam War strengthened the left in general and promoted a leftist politics of solidarity that influenced Swedish, Danish and Norwegian foreign policy-making of the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The territorial dimensions of the state are undergoing substantial changes. Political entities, such as cities and regions, are gaining in importance. Described as entrepreneurial city politics, policy-makers of contemporary cities are using new, economically oriented strategies to strengthen their city's position in interurban competition. Despite this state of affairs, social science still tends to treat local politics as equal to sub-national politics. This has especially been the case in Scandinavia, where local governments have traditionally functioned as an extension of the central welfare state. Since processes associated with entrepreneurial city politics are manifested in Scandinavia as well, this article argues that there is a need to rethink what local politics ultimately is about. The article proposes the ideas recently formed at the 'Lancaster School of Cultural Political Economy' as an approach with which to reconceptualise local politics. In the final section, some remarks on a future research agenda, centred on the cultural political economy of contemporary city politics, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of democratization, the national parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe first needed to adapt to the democratic norms and principles set by Western European countries and organizations. Before an individual state could enter the EU, the parliaments had to align the entirety of their national legislation with EU legal standards. Further, national parliaments had to incorporate the supranational decision-making models practiced in the EU. Each of the parliaments of the 2004 entrant countries has chosen different models of participation in the decision-making process at the EU. The Slovenian example shows that its National Assembly (Državni zbor), long an active participant in country's accession process, has chosen a model that secures it a relatively strong role in dealing with EU matters, similar to that of some Scandinavian parliaments. The National Assembly adopted an anticipatory examination of the EU draft legislation and put the main focus on the special Committee on EU Affairs. Statistical data shows that the Slovene parliament, during the last mandate (2004-2008) did not adequately use its full range of opportunities to become an active player in the process of formulating and passing legislation at the EU-level. The National Assembly further missed an opportunity to direct or influence the activities of government representatives at the EU-level. Thus, EU matters remained separate from the national context. On the basis of previous accession countries acclimation to the EU, it is possible to conclude that parliaments during their first mandates after the country's entry into the EU are not yet able to develop a parliamentary-EU dimension. These assumptions indicate a need to prepare some 'recipes' to mollify problems for future EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scandinavia is, in spite of a few weaknesses, still a socio-economic model for countries that do not want to follow the Anglo-Saxon route of far-reaching liberalization of the labour market and the welfare state. Most striking is the combination of high employment (including high public sector employment), the facilitation of employment for women, relatively low inequality and poverty, solid public finances and top-level competitiveness, particularly in Denmark, Finland and Sweden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article local governance in the Swedish context is discussed. A case study of a Swedish city is framed in its historical, national and international context. By locating the redevelopment of an old harbour within a historical context, new insights are brought into the understanding of local governance. Cities are indeed nested. Deteriorating public finances, the deregulation of the economy (nationally and globally), the changed status of the welfare state, the restructuring of industry and the neo-liberal wave all taken together form a formidable challenge. A radical questioning of the values, principles and forms of the Swedish welfare state has tangible impacts on local governance. It is concluded that Swedish municipal actors face the dual challenge of acting efficiently (being sensitive to the needs and demands of local elites), while keeping democratic legitimacy (being sensitive to the needs and demands of all citizens). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nordic states have embraced the thesis that development and security are strongly interdependent. While they have been heavily and continuously involved in Africa as donors in the development field, their military engagement is less consistent. The article argues that the foreign policy strategies of the Nordic states are designed to maximize international influence by enhancing their reputations and images. However, those foreign policies are divided into separate policy fields, or segments, working within their own international frameworks. Since different international frameworks appreciate actions and behaviour differently, national integration of development-security strategies is very difficult to achieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the implications of the Scandinavian model of social, economic and political advancement for Europe as a whole. According to the author, the model depicts a considerable interest between capitalism and socialism which enables Scandinavian countries to attain rapid increase, welfare state sustainment and establish mechanism to advance their employment rate. It also discusses the attained distinction of its members in terms of social and democratic traditions and corporatism as well as the negative and positive aspects of the model.

Presents an overview of joint Nordic activities in the field of international law. Report of the International Law Commission on its 51st session; Details of the International Decade for Indigenous People; Fundamental standards of humanity.

Presents an overview of the labor market policies in Scandinavia targeted to promote employment and reduce open unemployment since the early 1980s. Policies of stimulating employment; Policies of influencing labour supply; Active and passive labour market policies; Domestic factors that caused employment crises in the 1990s; Use of labor force supply in combatting unemployment.

Discusses joint Nordic coordination and collaboration in the field of international law for 1998. Report of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law; Diplomatic protection; International liability; Reservations to treaties; State responsibility; Protection, security and safety of diplomatic and consular missions and representatives; Nationality of natural persons in relation to the succession of states.

Over 10 to 15 years, an organizational fragmentation of Scandinavian local government has come about by the introduction of neighbourhood councils, user-governed public service institutions, contracting Out of services and experimental, particularized state grants to the localities. Consequently, users come into focus, territorial democracy is challenged, and new forms of inter-governmental relations abound. This calls for alternatives to the traditional analysis of local government with less emphasis on formal organizational analysis and more on governance and inter-organizational links. There are indications that contrary to aspirations, the influence of professionals is not reduced by the changes and consequently increased user influence is not given, but there is a need for more analysis along the lines suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexibility is a prominent catchword in recent economic and political debate. The need for increased flexibility in various areas of society is generally accepted. The article presents and criticizes the terms of this debate. As part of the general neoliberal trend flexibility is often perceived as a purely desirable quality. Less state, less unions and flexibilization by means of greater reliance upon markets are the policies that are proposed to overcome the crisis of the Western industrialized countries. However, flexible adaptation requires a foundation of stable institutions and behaviour patterns. Japan today represents one successful combination of flexibility and stability. Scandinavia — and other small European countries — have been attributed other successful combinations. Here. political stability seems to arise from a big state and an extended corporatist system and, according to Katzenstein, this does not contradict, but rather reinforces. the capacity for economic flexibility. Recent developmental trends, however, challenge this interpretation. The recent structural changes have been considered part of a general transition from Fordism to post-Fordism. The international race to modernize or to implement post-Fordism might imply a new 'match' of techno-economic structures and sociopolitical institutions — also in the Scandinavian countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although local political leaders have fewer policy instruments available than national politicians, they nevertheless engage heavily in the creation of political business cycles, i.e. they try to locate and time the costs and benefits of government policies in such as way as to optimize voter support. The study, which is based on data from the four Nordic countries and Italy and France, shows that expenditures tend to grow faster the closer the local election, while political action to increase local taxes is generally taken only in mid-term years. If one wants to predict how local tax rates and expenditures change, it is as important to know the number of years to the next election as it is to know the change in the fiscal capabilities of local governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information about the scholarly journal "Scandinavian Political Studies" is presented.