Scandinavian politics today

369 Pages·2008·4.62 MB·English

by  David Arter

Scandinavian
politics today
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Politics Today
Series editor: Bill Jones
Ideology and politics in Britain today Ian Adams
Political ideology today, 2nd edition Ian Adams
Scandinavian politics today, 2nd edition David Arter
American society today Edward Ashbee
US politics today, 2nd edition Edward Ashbee
French politics today, new edition David S. Bell
Local government today, 3rd edition J. A. Chandler
Irish politics today, 4th edition Neil Collins and Terry Cradden
Political issues in Ireland today, 3rd edition Neil Collins and Terry Cradden (editors)
US elections today (Elections USA, 2nd edition) Philip John Davies
Political issues in America today Philip John Davies and Fredric A. Waldstein (editors)
Devolution in Britain today, 2nd edition Russell Deacon
Spanish politics today John Gibbons
The Politics Today companion to American government Alan Grant and Edward Ashbee
European politics today, 2nd edition Patricia Hogwood and Geoffrey K. Roberts
Dictionary of British politics Bill Jones
Political issues today, 5th edition Bill Jones (editor)
British politics today, 7th edition Bill Jones and Dennis Kavanagh
Political issues in the world today Don MacIver
Italian politics today Hilary Partridge
The Politics Today companion to the British Constitution Colin Pilkington
German politics today Geoffrey Roberts
The Politics Today companion to West European politics Geoffrey K. Roberts and
Patricia Hogwood
Debates in British politics today Lynton Robins and Bill Jones (editors)
Parliament today Michael Rush
Russian politics today Michael Waller
Britain in the European Union today, 3rd edition Duncan Watts and Colin Pilkington
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Scandinavian
politics today
Second edition
David Arter
Manchester University Press
Manchester and New York
distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
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Copyright © David Arter 1999, 2008
The right of David Arter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First edition published 1999 by Manchester University Press
This edition published 2008 by Manchester University Press
Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
Distributed in the United States exclusively by
Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10010, USA
Distributed in Canada exclusively by
UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
ISBN 978 0 7190 7853 8 paperback
This edition first published 2008
17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Typeset by R. J. Footring Ltd, Derby
Printed in Great Britain
by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow
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Contents
List of tables page vii
Preface ix
List of abbreviations xi
Part I: Scandinavia past and present
1 The eight quills of the swan 3
2 Nation-building and state-building, 1809–1944 25
Part II: Parties in developmental perspective
3 The emergence of the Scandinavian party system(s) 51
4 The historic strengths of the five main types of party 72
Part III: Parties, voters and social change:
w(h)ither the Scandinavian party system model?
5 The ‘earthquake elections’ of 1970–73 and the emergence of
new party types 101
6 Party system change since 1970 133
Part IV: The Nordic model
7 A Nordic model of government? 151
8 The Nordic welfare model 170
Part V: Legislative–executive relations in the Nordic region
9 The Nordic parliaments: an alternative model? 193
10 ‘Fairly strong standing committees’ and ‘influential party groups’ –
a distinctively Nordic mix? 209
11 Nordic government(s): parliamentary, presidential or
prime ministerial? 229
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vi Contents
Part VI: The strategic security environment
12 The changing security environment of the Nordic region:
from Cold War ‘security threats’ to the ‘security challenges’
of today 259
13 ‘Reluctant Nordics’, ‘reluctant Europeans’,
but ‘moral superpowers’? 297
Epilogue 340
Index 344
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Tables
1.1 The population size and density of the Nordic states in 2007 page 5
1.2 Total civilian employment in the Nordic states by major
economic sectors in 2005 6
1.3 The composition of the Nordic Council in 2007 9
1.4 The Sámi parliaments in Norden 11
1.5 Finnish as the ‘odd one out’ 12
2.1 Nation-building and state-building in Norden, 1809–1922:
a chronology of events 28
3.1 Party support at the 1985 Swedish general election 57
3.2 Elections to the Swedish Riksdag’s Second Chamber, 1944–68 60
3.3 Elections to the Danish Folketing, 1945–68 62
3.4 The Finland Swede population as a percentage of the total Finnish
population, 1880–2003 64
3.5 Elections to the Finnish Eduskunta, 1945–66 65
3.6 Elections to the Norwegian Storting, 1945–69 67
3.7 Elections to the Icelandic Alþingi, 1942–67 68
4.1 The average percentage poll of the mainland Nordic Social
Democratic/Labour parties, 1920–2007 73
4.2 The average Agrarian Party poll in the Norwegian, Swedish
and Finnish general elections, 1919–62 79
4.3 The average communist/‘old left’ poll in Nordic general elections
since 1919 82
4.4 The average vote for the Conservative and Liberal parties in
Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, 1919–2007 91
4.5 Percentage class composition of support for the Norwegian parties
in 1957 93
4.6 Percentage class composition of support for the Finnish parties
in 1948 and 1966 94
4.7 Percentage class composition of support for the Swedish Social
Democrats in 1964 95
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viii List of tables
5.1 The proportion of party switchers in Sweden, 1988–2006 103
5.2 The proportion of party switchers in Norway, 1981–2005 104
5.3 The proportion of party switchers in Denmark, 1981–2005 104
5.4 The Nordic eco-socialist parties 108
5.5 Classification of the new Scandinavian radical right 116
5.6 Nordic Green parties 120
5.7 Nordic Christian parties 124
6.1 The average of the effective number of electoral parties in
the five Nordic states in the pre- and post-1970 periods 134
6.2 Vote share of the ‘pole parties’, Liberals and Communists and
‘others’ in general elections in Denmark, Finland, Norway and
Sweden, 1945–2007 136
8.1 Participation in the labour force in the Nordic countries,
by gender, 2007 182
8.2 Female representation in the Nordic parliaments, 2007 184
8.3 Female ministers in Nordic governments, 2007 184
8.4 Female representation on company boards in Scandinavia 185
11.1 Minority governments in the metropolitan Scandinavian states,
1970/71–2007 231
11.2 Icelandic presidents since 1944 239
11.3 Finnish presidents since 1919 242
11.4 Swedish prime ministers since 1945 246
11.5 Danish prime ministers since 1945 247
11.6 Finnish prime ministers since 1946 248
11.7 Norwegian prime ministers since 1945 249
11.8 Icelandic prime ministers since 1944 250
13.1 The main landmarks of Nordic regional co-operation during
the Cold War 299
13.2 Scandinavia and European integration 1945–2007:
a chronology of events 318
13.3 Danish referenda on Europe 327
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Preface
When Bill Jones approached me to revise Scandinavian Politics Today for a
second edition, my hope (very quickly dashed!) was that ‘cosmetic surgery’
might suffice, simply dotting the ‘i’s here and crossing the ‘t’s there, so to
speak. In the event, this second edition represents a complete rewrite – major
surgery, if you will – and only chapter 2, ‘Nation-building and state-building’,
has survived relatively unscathed. This is because if a week is a long time in
politics, à la Harold Wilson, the eight-year period since Scandinavian Politics
Today first came out is a veritable eternity in the life of a textbook, particularly
when so much has changed. For example, when Finland adopted a new consti-
tution in 2000, which, in significantly reducing the formal powers of the head
of state, meant it could no longer be described as a case of ‘semi-presidential
government’, it was obvious that chapter 11 would need substantial revision.
Equally, the analysis of the strength of Scandinavian social democracy would
need some recasting given that in 2000 there were Social Democratic/Labour
prime ministers in all the Nordic states except Iceland, whereas seven years
later this was true only in Norway. Indeed, in both Denmark and Finland the
Social Democrats are no longer the largest party and, at the November 2007
general election, the Danish party polled its worst result since 1906. Account
would also have to be taken in the ‘international relations’ chapters (part VI)
of the implications for the special US–Icelandic relationship of the departure
of American forces from the military base at Keflavík in 2006, the Danes’ and
Swedes’ rejection of the euro in referenda in 2000 and 2003, respectively, and
the radical transformation of the security environment of northern Europe
subsequent to the Baltic states’ membership of both the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation and the European Union. Then there were the international
ramifications for Denmark of the Muhammad cartoon episode in 2006 and the
possible damage caused to the Finns’ reputation abroad following the Jokela
school massacre in November 2007. The statistic that appeared widely in the
global media coverage of the event hardly painted a glowing picture of Finnish
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