2007-11-20

Scandinavian Politics: workshop on Nordic-EU co-operation

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Here's a call, from Ian Manners of the Danish Institute for International Studies, for paper proposals. It's for a workshop on 'The Impact of Nordic-EU Cooperation' at the NOPSA 2008 Conference in Tromsø, Norway, August 6th-9th 2008. Ian invites people to submit abstracts to him by the 15th January 2008.

The full list of workshops at the NOPSA conference is attached.

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

Please feel free to forward this message to anyone who might be interested. To join the Scandinavian Politics mailing list, send a message to me, the convenor (nicholas.aylott@sh.se). If you want to send something to the list, or if you don't want to receive these occasional messages, just let me know. See also www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/scandinavia/

________________________________

THE IMPACT OF NORDIC-EU COOPERATION

The workshop provides an opportunity for academic engagement on the question of the impact of Nordic-EU cooperation - in terms of Nordic-EU scholarship, Nordic-EU policy cooperation, and the interaction between the two. The workshop encourages work that analyses and evaluates the impact of Nordic scholarship on EU questions, with a particular interest in the power of such scholarship to shape questions on the vision of the EU. The workshop will seek to raise awareness of Nordic scholarship in the EU intellectual field, clarify controversies regarding differing Nordic perspectives, and suggest new EU research questions which collaborative Nordic scholarship could address. The workshop will seek to encourage far greater interaction and collaborative work between scholars based in Nordic research institutes or in universities working on EU questions.

By 'impact', we firstly mean evidence of the ability of Nordic-EU scholarship to shape debates in the wider EU studies community. Secondly, we mean evidence of the impact of Nordic-EU policy cooperation on policy making in the EU institutions. Finally, by 'impact' we are also interested in the interaction between Nordic-EU scholarship and Nordic-EU policy cooperation - is there any evidence of such scholarship shaping policy cooperation or vice versa?

Prior to the end of the Cold War, the impact of Nordic scholarship and membership of the European Union, as represented by Denmark, was relatively small. With the 1995 enlargement of the EU and the entry of Finland and Sweden, there was much expectation of a greater role for Nordic policy ideas and analysts. The workshop welcomes papers and participants that intend to take stock of Nordic-EU scholarship and Nordic-EU policy cooperation. It encourages participants who wish to engage with the particularly difficult task of analysing such Nordic-EU cooperation. This task is difficult because of the dense paths that link together the academic, policy, and political worlds. In addition, the challenge of critical self-evaluation and reflection is one which has proved difficult over the past 12 years.

One of the central aims of the workshop is be to develop a far greater self-conscious awareness of Nordic-EU scholarship and policy cooperation, and to promote new areas of EU research that collaborative groups of Nordic scholars could work together in.

The working language of the workshop is English.

Workshop convenors:

Ian Manners
Danish Institute for International Studies
ima@diis.dk

Catharina Sørensen
Danish Institute for International Studies
cas@diis.dk

The deadline for sending abstracts is January 15, 2008. Please send your abstract to Ian Manners at ima@diis.dk

2007-11-16

Scandinavian Politics: Danish election analysis

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Jacob Christensen of Umeå University has completed an analysis of the Danish election - again, especially for us on the list. It can be found on his blog at the following address:

http://jacobchristensen.name/2007/11/14/the-danish-election-2007-a-first-summary-and-analysis/

A copy can also be found below.

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

Please feel free to forward this message to anyone who might be interested. To join the Scandinavian Politics mailing list, send a message to me, the convenor (nicholas.aylott@sh.se). If you want to send something to the list, or if you don't want to receive these occasional messages, just let me know. See also www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/scandinavia/


DANISH ELECTION SUMMARY
Jacob Christensen 2007-11-14

Tuesday's election, called by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen on 24 October, ended with a surprising, but narrow win for the governing Liberal-Conservative coalition and its parliamentary ally the Danish People's Party. Even though the Liberal Party suffered some losses, the coalition and its partner still hold 89 of the 175 seats in parliament which with the conditional support of one MP elected on the Faroe Islands gives the government the slimmest of working majorities.

The election was a triumph for the Socialist Party which after nearly two decades of decline celebrated its best result since 1988 and to a lesser degree the Danish People's Party which against all predictions not only gained 0,5 percentage points compared with the 2005 election - itself a significant triumph for the party - but also still holds the crucial parliamentary votes needed for the government.

In terms of votes, the election was a major defeat for the Social Liberal Party which saw all of the gains from the 2005 election wiped out while the Social Democrats also recorded losses. Viewed in isolation, the 2007 result was the party's worst performance since the 1906 election when the Social Democrats held 25,4% of the vote.

The election was also a major disappointment to the New Alliance party which was formed in May by members of the Social Liberal, Liberal and Conservative Parties to bring about a change in cooperation patterns in parliament. The party not only saw its share of the vote fall well below expectations - opinion polls in the early part of the campaign suggested that the party would stand to gain 5-6% of the vote - it also failed to capture the median position in the Folketing, minimising its chances of influencing tax and immigration policies.

Finally, turn-out - traditionally high in Denmark - was up from 84,4 to 86,5%. This is slightly surprising as the campaign was very short and lacked an overriding theme.

As there is no majority against the present government in the new Folketing, the government will not resign. Instead, Anders Fogh Rasmussen invited to a round of consultations with the Danish People's Party and New Alliance on Wednesday.

/As the counting of the personal votes (usually around 50% of votes are cast as personal votes) hasn't finished at the time of writing, I won't comment that distribution./

*The Campaign*

When Anders Fogh Rasmussen called the election on 24 October, he ended nearly six months' of speculations and rumours about an early election. Political commentators and politicians already expected an election in September but preparations were aborted when the government entered an agreement about tax cuts with the Danish People's Party. A minor government reshuffle also indicated that an election had been postponed for some time.

Fogh Rasmussen motivated the election with the need to create support for the government's quality reform drive and to counter excessive demands for pay rises in the public sector but neither issue played a central role in the campaign. Instead, a number of issues promoted by different parties competed for the voters' attention while a poll conducted by Gallup suggested that the voters' political agenda had changed from 2001 and 2005, where immigration and health care were central themes, to an emphasis on general social policy and welfare.

The campaign was also characterised by a number of policy reversals among the opposition parties.

The Social Liberals and Socialists gave up their fundamental opposition to the so-called "24-year-clause" which is one of several rules limiting the right for spouses and relatives to enter Denmark, while the Social Democrats promised to cancel their participation in a primary education agreement with the government which introduced a series of national tests for primary school pupils.

These reversals, on the one hand, removed a number of stumbling blocks in the cooperation between Social Democrats, Socialists and Social Liberals. On the other hand, they also raised questions about the internal and external stability of these parties' policy positions.

The government's campaign was more subdued and focused on the need to continue the welfare and immigration policies introduced since 2001. A bizarre element of the campaign was that voters, when asked,found it easier to remember the Social Democrats' pledges than the governments'. This recognition factor still didn't help the Social Democrats.

Compared with earlier elections, the Danish People's Party also kept a relatively low profile with the party's campaign film presenting an idyllic rural Denmark under threat from Islamist terrorism as the high point. On the other hand, the party already had carried out a massive poster and newspaper campaign during the late summer and early autumn emphasising a number of "Danish values" and the party's commitment to pursuing them in day-to-day politics. To the DPP, the election campaign could be seen as a continuation of the values campaign.

The left-wing Unity List [aka the Red-Green Alliance - NA] had drawn a lot of attention both before and during the campaign because of the party's nomination of social worker Asmaa Abdol-Hamid as one of its top candidates in Copenhagen. Abdol-Hamid, who is of Palestinian origin, had been the object of much internal and external criticism because she emphasised her religious views (she conspicuously wears a head-scarf and refuses to shake hands with men). The Unity List had lost support during the summer but whether the decision to field Ms. Abdol-Hamid played the decisive role remains to be seen. The party may have gained some of the immigrant vote in the election as Muslim leaders endorsed her candidacy.

Finally, the New Alliance party showed itself to be somewhat accident-prone during the campaign. The party which had only been formed in May and was in the process of creating a proper membership organisation was rushed into picking candidates and this lack of preparation showed in a number of un-coordinated initiatives by several of the high-profile candidates nominated by the party.

Basically, the party ran on three issues - reducing the Danish People's Party's influence over government policies, more liberal immigration and integration policies and a tax reform reducing top-bracket income tax rates significantly - but found it difficult to deliver its message. That the party's most prominent figure, Naser Khader, became involved in
a conflict with the editor of the illustrated weekly Henrik Qvortrup, a former advisor to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, and handled the situation less convincingly only added to the party's misfortunes.

*A Short Preliminary Analysis*

One thing which is worth noting about the election result, is that if New Alliance is counted as a part of the government bloc, the balance of power between the main blocs didn't change between 2005 and 2007: After the 2007 election, Anders Fogh Rasmussen and the government can count on 94 MPs, while Helle Thorning Schmidt can count on 81 MPs. All net movement took place within the political blocs - this of cause allows for quite a lot of gross movement both within and across blocs.

Second, given the lack of an overriding issue in the campaign, the increase in turn-out is interesting. Commentators have suggested that New Alliance may have played a role here by targeting the Danish People's Party in its electoral propaganda. That, in turn, could have motivated DPP supporters to turn out in higher numbers than expected. The fact that the DPP was only marginally under its 2005 result in many opinion polls during the campaign should also have served as an indication that the DPP would make a strong performance at the polls.

Third, even if immigration wasn't a major issue in the campaign - though there was some discussion about the handling of Iraqi asylum seekers which had been denied a permanent stay in Denmark and the DPP made what it could from Asmaa Abdol-Hamid's candidacy - the Danish People's Party still made a strong performance and even gained vote shares compared with 2005. The DPP is an anti-immigration party but its electoral success also builds on a strong position in social policy issues.

Fourth, I suspect that this election confirmed that we now have a leftist parallel to the "general rightist" voter which has long been a feature of Danish politics.

The "general rightist" voter is a voter which has a clear position on the left-right scale without being particularly committed to any particular party. In this way "general rightists" would float between Liberals, Conservatives, Christian Democrats, Social Liberals (when they positioned themselves on or to the right of the centre) and the now-defunct Centre Democrats. Similarly, the "general leftist" will flow between Social Democrats, Socialists and Social Liberals - and to a lesser degree the Unity List. In 2005, the Social Liberals won the hearts and votes of the "general leftists", in 2007 the Socialists did the same.

This mobility isn't primarily a protest vote. Rather, research has shown that many Danish voters generally have strong second and third preferences when it comes to parties. The Unity List and the Danish People's Party are the only parties existing outside of this general consensus.

Fifth, the indication is that the electorate identified with the Social Democrats' policies without voting for the party. One reason was the strong performance of the Socialist Party (see under "general leftist"), another that the Liberals and the Danish People's Party managed to hold on to potential swing voters. I'm looking forward to seeing a break-down of voter movements involving the Liberals. The Social Democrats are not in a hopeless position but need to review their strategies.

Finally, the weak performance of New Alliance merits attention. Given the original polls, I would have expected the party to win 4-6% of the vote and 2,8% is well below the expectations of both external observers and the party itself.

*Outlook*

Predicting anything in Danish politics is notoriously difficult but the coming parliamentary term may be rather more uncomfortable for the government than the 2001-2005 and 2005-2007 terms.

The government will be operating on a very narrow majority after the election. Experience has shown that the Danish People's Party usually lose one or more MPs during an electoral term and there are also significant disagreements between the government and the DPP on a number of policy issues that will reach the political agenda in the coming year, most significantly the adoption of the new EU treaty and pay for social and health care workers.

The government can count on the Social Democrats, New Alliance and the Social Liberals to support the EU treaty, but the Social Democrats in particular may feel less obliged to help the government in controlling wage negotiations. More generally, the government may be exposed to a lot of demands for higher public expenditure on a lot of areas related to education, health care and social policy while finding it difficult to reach political agreements in parliament.

The negotiations about the 2008 Budget, due to begin very soon, will be an interesting indicator of things to come.

The Social Democratic leadership also faces interesting tasks. After a long period with internal conflicts and after losing at least two generations of experienced politicians during the last terms, the party are now left with a new, relatively united group of front-bench politicians which will have to formulate a programme for the next election which can position the party as a contender for government.

The early election and the electoral set-back could turn out to be blessings-in-disguise for Helle Thorning Schmidt: Either the next election will be on the background of a conflict between the government and the Danish People's Party or it will be 3 years out in the future, giving her time to reassess and revise the party's policies and strategies. At the same time, she will have a crew of politicians who have not been brought up in the belief in Social Democratic hegemony but exposed to a much more competitive situation on the electoral and parliamentary arenas.

2007-11-14

Scandinavian Politics: Danish election result

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,


The main outcomes of yesterday's election in Denmark include the following.

THE RIGHT-WING COALITION will continue in office.

* The Liberals, the party of the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, lost seats. But their coalition partners, the Conservatives, and the party that gives the coalition reliable support in parliament, the right-wing populist Danish People's Party, both made modest gains.

* A fair few Conservatives, and probably some Liberals, had been hoping that their coalition would no longer have to rely on the rather embarrassing support of the Danish People's Party, and instead secure a parliamentary majority with the help of the debutant New Alliance. But New Alliance wilted under the campaign spotlight, and its chance of supplanting the right-populists as the government's primary support - the newcomers' primary aim - was lost. This sealed another remarkably successful election for Pia Kjærsgaard's Danish People's Party.

* But it was close. Had a Liberal ally not held on to one of the Faroe islands' two seats (or, of course, if the left bloc had done just a bit better), New Alliance would still have grabbed the crucial median-legislator position. It's failure to do so saved the Liberals and Conservatives from having to rely for a majority on both the Danish People's Party to its right AND New Alliance to its left, which would have been decidedly tricky.

ON THE LEFT, there were mixed fortunes.

* The Social Democrats turned in yet another historically awful score. Yet opinion polls had for some time indicated that they would do even worse, and observers agreed that their leader, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, had a good campaign.

* The Social Liberals lost all the gains they made in 2005. This, plus Thorning-Schmidt's centrism, plus the near-collapse of the far-left Red-Green Alliance, gave a huge boost to the Socialist People's Party. That party's success, however, also owed a lot to its leader, Villy Søvndal.


Here are details of the result (source: Politiken).

RIGHT BLOC
New Alliance 2.8% (-), 5 seats (-)
Christian Democrats 0.9% (-0.8), 0 seats (0)
Conservatives 10.4% (+0.1), 18 seats (0)
Liberals 26.3% (-2.7), 46 seats (-6)
Danish People's Party 13.8% (+0.5), 25 seats (+1)
North Atlantic allies 1 seat
total: 54.2% of the vote, 95 seats, 53.1% of seats

LEFT BLOC
Social Liberals 5.1% (-4.1), 9 seats (-8)
Social Democrats 25.5% (-0.3), 45 seats (-2)
Socialist People's Party 13.0% (+7.0), 23 seats (+12)
Red-Green Alliance 2.2 (-1.2), 4 (-2)
North Atlantic allies 3 seats
total: 45.8% of the vote, 84 seats, 46.9% of seats

Potential majorities mooted before election, and how they ended up:
- Liberals + Conservatives + Danish People's Party = 89 seats, 49.7% of seats
- Liberals + Conservatives + Danish People's Party + Faroes ally = 90 seats, 50.3% of seats
- Liberals + Conservatives + New Alliance = 69 seats, 38.5% of seats


More detailed analysis will follow in the coming days.


Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

2007-11-07

Scandinavian Politics: election campaign

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

The short election campaign in Denmark is in its last full week. My former colleague at Umeå University, Jacob Christensen, has written - especially for us on the list - an account of how it's gone so far, plus some very useful background. You can find this and other election comments on his blog:

http://jacobchristensen.name/tag/election-2007/

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

2007-11-02

Scandinavian Politics: Danish election, Swedish resignation

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Two quick reports.

1. It probably won't have escaped your attention that last week the Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, called an election for November 13th. While the opposition Social Democrats and Social Liberals have recently been reconciled, current polls make exciting reading for the debutant New Alliance - and therefore for many members of the Liberal-Conservative coalition government. Success for the new party might well liberate the coalition from its reliance in parliament on the far-right Danish People's Party. More on the campaign next week.

2. Meanwhile, in Sweden, the centre-right government becomes ever more accident-prone. Yesterday it notched its fifth resignation in just over a year - two politically appointed under-secretaries, who are a sort of junior minister, and three cabinet ministers. Only one has been over policy disagreement; all others involved scandal of some sort.

This latest one involved Ulrica Schenström, under-secretary in the prime minister's office. A week ago, Aftonbladet published a paparazzo photo of her in a bar with a TV reporter. Their embrace appeared, at least, to be quite intimate, and vague questions were asked as to whether both parties had overstepped the boundaries of a professional relationship. This might have been shrugged off. But suggestions that Schenström had been on some sort of national-crisis watch that night, a sensitive subject for Swedes since the state's slow response to the Asian tsunami nearly three years ago, plus disclosure of the impressive sum that the pair had spent on booze that night, then combined to force her out. (The reporter has also taken a "time-out" from his job.)

This is a major blow to the prime minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who loses a close political ally. His judgement in recruiting government colleagues looks increasingly shaky. But questions are also being asked as to whether Schenström's offence was really so heinous, and whether media power hasn't exceeded reasonable limits. The precise nature of her crisis-watch duties are obviously highly germane to her case, but the government is reluctant to elaborate - for security reasons, it says.

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

2007-10-20

Scandinavian History

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

This message about a Discussion List in Scandinavian History might
well be of interest to some of us. Thanks to Christine Agius of
Salford University for passing it on.

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

Please feel free to forward this message to anyone who might be
interested. To join the Scandinavian Politics mailing list, send a
message to me, the convenor (nicholas.aylott@sh.se). If you want to
send something to the list, or if you don't want to receive these
occasional messages, just let me know. See also
www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/scandinavia/

----------

From: Andrew Newby [mailto:anewby@staffmail.ed.ac.uk]
Sent: Tue 16-Oct-07 13:38
Subject: H-SKAND Discussion List in Scandinavian History

Dear potential H-SKAND subscriber,

As you may be aware, a new editorial team has recently taken over
H-SKAND from Matthew Gilmore, who served as list editor (and ensured
the very survival of the list) for a number of years. We are:

Katarina Andersson (Halmstad College)
Andrew G. Newby (University of Edinburgh)
Erik Thomson (University of Chicago)

We are writing to you in the hope that you would consider signing up
to the H-SKAND discussion network, as we believe that a network of
this type can only be successful with the widest possible membership.
You have been approached because (i) we (the editors) know you
personally; (ii) because a colleague has suggested your name as
someone who might be interested in H-SKAND, or (iii) because you are
on the existing membership / subscription list but with an outdated
email address.

We would be extremely grateful if you could also forward this message
to anyone you know who may be interested.

In order to subscribe, please email any of the above editors, or enter
the website directly at: http://www.h-net.org/~skand/

In recent months, we have made an attempt to "renew" H-SKAND, but
publishing reviews, calls for papers and other information which is of
relevance to scholars of the Nordic countries worldwide.

As a part of this renewal process, we hope to achieve various goals,
and would like to take this opportunity to set out what we consider to
be some of the most important aims of H-SKAND.

H-SKAND should be a forum for discussion and debate about the Nordic
region and its people, in the broadest sense (including the Nordic
Diaspora). This means individual states / regions / self-governing
areas, as well as holistic treatments of "Norden" as a single entity.
H-SKAND, although described as a board for "Scandinavian History",
should be treated as inter- and multi-disciplinary. Thus, all topics
of academic interest, including (but certainly not limited to)
literature, archaeology, art history, and music history relating to
the region will be considered for publication. We would also like to
state at this point that we welcome the
participation of archivists, librarians, local historians and other
scholars who do not have an affiliation with a particular college or
university.

As with all other H-NET sites, discussion is supplemented by notices
of books, publications, dissertations in progress, conferences and
seminars, prizes and other news of relevance to the community. We
particularly encourage scholars to contribute with such information,
so the list may come to serve as a central clearing house for
information about scholarship on the Nordic region.

We highlight the following as especially useful in developing H-SKAND
as a vibrant forum for the global "Nordic" community:

-Funding opportunities: from individual Nordic states / regions,
pan-Nordic, circumpolar, etc. etc. Again the brief is very broad:
anything from PhD studentships to visiting professorships, bilateral
arrangements, visits from the Nordic countries to "overseas", or
vice-versa.

-Conference Calls: it is great to see who is working on what around
the world, even if we don't get the chance to see the papers "live" or
speak at a given conference. We would also encourage members to
highlight papers that they have seen, relevant to H-SKAND, at
conferences we may have missed (for example, because the conference
was not strictly relating to "Norden".) We would also hope to publish
notices of one-off seminars, or seminar series, dealing with relevant
topics.

-Journal Papers: Similarly, we have been given the contents of some
Scandinavian History Journals, but what about individual articles on
the region in other journals - colleagues could submit their
sightings.

-We hope to see discussion / debate on our own research, getting
(hopefully constructive) feedback from peers. H-SKAND could help
hugely in this area, suggesting readings, and commenting on the
viability of a project.

H-SKAND contributors may use any of the Nordic languages for their
postings, or indeed any other relevant language. Although we recognise
that English is often used as an international language, this is not
always the case, and contributors should feel free to use the language
they feel most appropriate to their message.

For your information, the following leads to a list of posts which
appeared on H-SKAND during the month of September 2007.

http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl"trx=lx&list=H-Skand&user=&pw=&month=0709

As you will observe, there is plenty of information, but provided by a
handful of people. A larger number of subscribers would assist in
developing international dialogues, as well as increasing the "basic"
information flow.

We look forward to hearing from you,

With best wishes,

Katarina, Andrew, Erik H-SKAND Editors

2007-09-17

Scandinavian Politics: cartoons crisis (cont.), Norwegian local elections

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Three quick notices.

1. Most of you will no doubt have noted that Sweden is experiencing its own cartoons crisis, a year and a half after Denmark's. The Economist has a good summary in this week's edition, and the English-language online paper the Local (www.thelocal.se) has also covered it, so I needn't go into details here. Suffice it to say that, interestingly, Swedish newspapers have been generally rather keener to stand up for freedom of speech than they were during the Danish crisis (although their attempts to assert the differences between the two episodes have, if you ask me, been somewhat less convincing).

2. I've had two expressions of interest in presenting papers at the 2008 PSA conference in Swansea, on Swedish or Nordic trade unions. If anyone else thinks that they could contribute a paper in roughly that field, we might have a panel proposal in the pipeline. Let me know if you do.

3. A week ago, Norway held its local elections, and there were mixed fortunes across the spectrum. Many thanks to Nick Sitter of the Norwegian School of Management, who's written an excellent commentary on the outcome, which I attach as a Word file.

Best,

Nick.

2007-06-29

Scandinavian Politics: 2008 PSA conference, other research matters

Hej to all on the Scandinavian politics list,

A couple of quick messages about future events.


1. The call for panel proposals at next year's PSA conference has already been issued. This conference, which will apparently be the last with the traditional campus-based format, will be at Swansea University on April 1st-3rd 2008 (www.psa.ac.uk/2008/call.htm).

My own scope to attend this conference might be rather limited. But that shouldn't stop other members of the list applying to convene panels - and it won't stop me co-ordinating our efforts. Indeed, the conference's academic convenor (who, incidentally, I know to be a sound bloke) wants "to emphasise the importance I attach to the role of specialist groups in helping to compose the programme...In the call for papers I have also encouraged scholars to consult you if they need assistance in composing coherent panels that are in the general research area covered by your specialist group."

Our panel at the PSA conference last April worked rather well. They can be an excellent way to get feedback on a draft or to report more advanced findings. Do let me have any ideas that you might have.

As usual, a small amount of money (up to a £150 or so) can be made available by the group to help with postgraduate students' conference costs.


2. My own involvement in the joint research ideas that we discussed very preliminarily at the conference in April will, unfortunately, have to be shelved. Unexpectedly securing project money is always nice. The downside, of course, is that it inevitably crowds out other plans. But if others on our list would like to initiate some form of collaboration, perhaps on the lines that we discussed or on something quite different, that would be great.

One immediate option (the deadline is as soon as August 15th) is the money provided for "exploratory workshops" by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences. The link can be found (via a Danish research site) here:

http://fist.dk/site/forside/soeg-stoette/opslag-stoettemuligheder/2007/stoette-til-eksplorative-workshops-fra-nos-hs

Remember, too, that our group has a few hundred pounds available for financing small research-related events. I've received a few expressions of interest, but other ideas for how we might use this money are more than welcome.


Meanwhile, have a great summer.

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

2007-06-16

Scandinavian Politics: Liberal shake-up

Hej to everyone on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Just a brief word about changes in the middle of the party-political spectrum in Sweden and Denmark (thanks to Jacob Christensen for his contribution to the item on the latter). It will be interesting to see whether changes in policy and strategy follow changes in leadership.


- In Denmark, the Social Liberals dumped their long-serving leader, Marianne Jelved, following a meeting of the parliamentary group on Friday. Criticism of her within the party had grown since she distanced it earlier this year from its longstanding informal alliance with the Social Democrats, but without signalling any compromise in its opposition to basic elements in the right-wing government's policy, especially on immigration and tax. That seemed to leave the Social Liberals isolated. Jelved was also seriously weakened by the formation of a breakaway party, New Alliance, by Social Liberal defectors at the beginning of May (see newsletter 070505).

The Social Liberals' second in command, Margrethe Vestager, who had been heir apparent since the late 1990s, takes over as chair of the parliamentary group and as "political leader". In a statement on its website, the Social Liberals urge the governing Liberals and Conservatives, and also (perhaps a little oddly) New Alliance, to join it in "working for a government anchored in the centre, independent of the [radical right-wing] Danish People's Party". This opening to the moderate right could presage real change. Last year Jelved called the Liberal prime minister "a dangerous man".

Yet no concrete policy compromises have been signalled in the press; nor did a leading figure on the Social Liberals right wing get the deputy leader's job that he'd hoped for. It's not yet clear, then, how the isolation of the Danish People's Party will be achieved.

There are some curious aspects to the party's announcement of the leadership change. A policy statement by Vestager was posted on the party's YouTube channel on Thursday night, which suggests that the hand-over was prepared in advance. The design of the party website had also been updated by noon on Friday to feature Vestager. But the statement from the parliamentary group on Friday did not explicitly mention the change in leadership. It was only a later press release from the chair of the party organisation that named Vestager as the new political leader.


- Meanwhile, the Swedish Liberals' election committee (see newsletter of 070119 for more discussion of this very Swedish institution) yesterday proposed schools minister Jan Björklund as the party's new leader, which all but guarantees that he will be elected at the party's autumn congress. He will replace Lars Leijonborg, who announced in late May that he would be stepping down.

Leijonborg has led the party for a decade, with the 2002 election as his high point. But his support had been ebbing away since the hacking scandal that engulfed the Liberals in last year's election campaign, and his fate was sealed by their feeble opinion-poll figures since they entered government. Indeed, the scandal and its aftermath provoked something of a backlash within the party against the tougher, mildly populist direction in which Leijonborg had taken it.

Yet little about Björklund's background - he was a military officer before taking up politics, and made his name almost entirely through advocating greater order in Stockholm's schools - suggests much change of policy. The party's social-liberal left simply lacked a plausible and willing leadership candidate. Wherever Björklund wants to take the party policy-wise, however, any Liberal leader would face the same strategic dilemma: how to profile the party without alienating its coalition partners.


Have a great summer!

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

2007-05-12

Scandinavian Politics: new Danish party

To all on the Scandinavian Politics mailing list,

Here are three notices - about developments in Danish party politics, news of an interesting-sounding research network, and a report of a recent research workshop.


1. A NEW PARTY has been launched in Denmark. Flemming Juul Christiansen of the University of Aarhus has kindly contributed this report.

----------
A new centre party, New Alliance (nyalliance.dk) was formed on Monday by Danish MP Naser Khader, who broke with the Social Liberal Party. Khader was designated as party leader. With him at his press conference were his two co-founders, MEPs Anders Samuelsen and Gitte Seeberg, who used to be a Social Liberal and a Conservative, respectively.

The break came after disagreement between Khader and the party leader, Marianne Jelved, over the strategy and policies of the Social Liberals. Khader became an MP in 2001. He soon showed his skills with the press but rose to fame during the "cartoon crisis" last year. Born in Syria, he sided with the views of the government on freedom of speech. He founded the organisation Democratic Muslims, which stressed the integration of immigrants into democracy and liberal values. Polls showed that he was very popular with the public. Other parts of the Social Liberal Party advocated less critical stances. In addition, Khader has argued in favour of co-operation with the Liberal-Conservative government instead of strict opposition.

Samuelsen is also known for liberal points of view. Seeberg has been critical of the government's co-operation with the Danish People's Party. A number of leading businessmen support the new party.

New Alliance states that it seeks to build compromises across the blocs in Danish politics. It wants to limit the influence of the Danish People's Party. It favours tax reform. It is pro-European. Finally, it favours strict immigration policies - stricter than those that applied before the present government constellation was formed in 2001, but less strict than the current ones.

Now the party needs around 20,000 signatures to get on the ballot. During its first day, the party apparently attracted over 1,000 members.

The Social Liberals have avoided party splits since the beginning of the 1960s (the Peace Policy Party failed to win representation in 1964). New Alliance may shake up the Danish party system, which has been static since the 2001 election. It may take voters from the present government and the Social Liberals.
----------


2. I've been contacted by Joachim Koops from the Department of Political Science, University of Kiel, Germany. He's alerted me to a newly formed research grouping, NETWORK NORTHERN EUROPE, based at Kiel. An English version of their website (www.politik.uni-kiel.de/nne/) is promised soon. This certainly looks like a very interesting development.


3. Lee Miles of Liverpool University has sent me the following report of a WORKSHOP that was held in April, which our Scandinavian Politics Specialist Groups helped to fund.

----------
EMINENT ACADEMICS AND POLICY-MAKERS DEBATE FUSION IN LIVERPOOL

On April 26th the FUSE-EUROPA programme, based in the Europe in the World Centre (EWC) at the University of Liverpool, hosted a prestigious international workshop that brought together prominent academics from eight countries, as well as policy-makers representing Denmark, Finland, Sweden, the UK and the European Parliament, to examine comparatively the complex relationship between the EU and the Nordic countries. This workshop was highly distinctive in that it provided a useful opportunity not only for the researchers working on fusion approaches to introduce new thinking and fresh concepts on fusion to a broader audience, but also to enable policy-makers to respond directly and inform about their ongoing research. The workshop fostered independent assessments of the utility of the fusion approaches for explaining the priorities and behaviour of Nordic policy-makers and how such policy-makers value their country's relationship with the European Union. The workshop attracted an audience of over 30 for each session.

In the first session, Professor Lee Miles (Jean Monnet Professor, EWC Director and leader of the FUSE-EUROPA research programme) delivered a paper discussing the functional utility of fusion approaches to the study of Nordic policy-making, which was followed by two interventions by Professor Clive Archer (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Magnus Lindh (Karlstad University, Sweden). The paper by Lee Miles was warmly received and a vibrant debate that lasted for over an hour ensued. The second and third sessions then provided opportunities to relate fusion concepts to the particular policy-making attitudes in the respective Nordic countries. Dr Teija Tiilikainen (Helsinki University) gave a highly stimulating talk on the successful integration of Finnish policy-makers into the workings of the EU. This was followed by a co-written paper by Professor Lee Miles (author of Fusing in Europe? Sweden in the European Union), Professor Rutger Lindahl and Dr Daniel Naurin (both Göteborg University, Sweden) that examined the Swedish case, arguing that Swedish policy-makers are in fact 'selective supranationalists', and not as commonly presented, 'ardent intergovernmentalists'.

Attention then turned to Norway and Iceland and participants explored whether fusion approaches could have relevance in evaluating policy-makers' behaviour in non-EU states. In a session chaired by Stewart Arnold (advisor to Diana Wallis MEP), Professor Baldur Thorhallsson (University of Iceland), who is widely acknowledged as Iceland's leading expert on Iceland-EU relations, reviewed the priorities and participation of Icelandic policy-makers in the European Economic Area. This was accompanied by a paper by Professor Jarle Trondal (Agder University College, Norway), who argued that Norwegian policy-making now represented a form of 'differentiated fusion'. The final session also included a review of the day's proceedings, and the process of national adaptation using fusion, by Dr Andreas Maurer, an award-winning academic from the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin and co-editor of Fifteen into One?, one of the leading academic works using fusion approaches. The proceedings and papers of this highly successful workshop will form the basis of a new edited volume, to be published in 2008.
----------


Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/samhallsvetenskaper

2007-04-19

Scandinavian Politics: conference report

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

I have placed the group's annual report on its website, in the newsletters section.

I can also briefly report on our group's activity at the PSA conference last week.

1. Our panel, entitled Changing Dynamics in Nordic Party Politics, went very well, with all four papers drawing useful comment and feedback. The papers are available at the conference website, which can be found via the PSA's site (www.psa.ac.uk).

2. The following points can serve as minutes from the group's administrative meeting, which was quite well attended.

(a) The group's panels at the PSA conferences. I reported on the highly unsatisfactory dealings that I had with the academic convenor prior to this year's conference (which I won't bore people with here, and which with luck won't be repeated in future). It was generally agreed that it is worth applying for two panels, as we did (unsuccessfully) this year.

The theme and format of these panels was also raised. Ideally, we'd have at least one panel devoted to a broader project, with the ultimate aim of some sort of publication. Most of those at the meeting had an interest in party politics, which made that a natural focus for such a project; but there could well be others. Of course, the content of these panels will depend largely on individuals' availability and interest in a given year.

This, in turn, will largely determine procedure. Because most present at this year's panel had read the papers beforehand, we could easily have done away with paper presentations altogether and devoted the whole 90 minutes to questions and comment. Alternatively, fewer papers in each of two panels would allow for proper presentations. A third variant would be to have brief paper summaries given not by the paper author but by the discussant. Each of these scenarios might be considered for future conferences.

(b) Finance. I reported that the group's existing funds had been used up by the donation of £750 to Lee Miles's workshop the Nordic States and the EU this month (see the group's website for details) and £150 to a postgraduate's conference expenses. The availability of both types of funding had previously been announced via our newsletter.

I could also report that, thanks to this activity, the PSA had granted us £850 basic subsidy for the new financial year. I am open to all suggestions as to how this money could be spent. One plan already on the table has been formulated by Mary Hilson of UCL. Her idea has been submitted to the PSA's new competition for funding individual specialist-group-related events. Unfortunately, this application was unsuccessful, so some - but not all - of the basic subsidy will probably be allocated to this project. There is no deadline for sending ideas for workshops, seminars, etc to me. Unless there is good reason for doing otherwise, first come will probably be first served. Additional sources of funding for such events were also mooted.

(c) The group's website was also briefly discussed. It was suggested that some of the group's money could be invested in it, but my own feeling is that this would eat up too much of our meagre resources too quickly. Still, there are ways in which could be improved that don't require much time and money. If anyone has more such ideas, do let me have them.

Best,

Nick Aylott.

2007-04-05

Scandinavian Politics: Finnish govt, seminars, jobs, cash

Hej to all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

A few brief notices.


1. The new Finnish governing parties were announced yesterday. As expected, "Vanhanen II" is another surplus majority coalition. Also expected was that the Christian Democrats' eager office-seeking would not find favour with the prime minister, who prefered a little less ideological homogeneity in his cabinet in return for a broader base.

The Social Democrats were more or less content to go into opposition, where, apart from the Christians, they'll be joined by the Left Alliance and, on the other side of the spectrum, the True Finns.

The government thus looks like this:

Centre Party, 51 seats +
National Coalition, 50 +
Greens, 15 +
Swedish People's Party, 9 + 1 (Åland)
= 126 of 200 seats.

Portfolios still need to be decided.


2. Christine Agius of Salford University has sent me details of the following interesting-looking seminars at her place.

EUROPEAN STUDIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (ESRI)
Centre for Contemporary History & Politics
Sponsored by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence

SEMINAR SERIES
Scandinavia, the EU, and Post-9/11 Challenges

Weds 18 April 2007 ‘Globalization and the Swedish Model of Welfare’
Anders Lindbom (University of Uppsala)
Room 106, Crescent House, 1pm

Weds 23 May 2007 ‘Islam, multiculturalism and Scandinavia: One year on from the Danish 'cartoon controversy'’
Ulla Holm (Danish Institute for International Studies)
Room 103, Crescent House, 12pm

ALL WELCOME. For further information please contact: Dr Chris Agius, Contemporary History & Politics (Tel: 0161 295 5309 or Email: C.Agius@salford.ac.uk).


3. Mary Hilson of UCL (ucmgmah@ucl.ac.uk, +44 20-7679 3184/7176) writes the following.

"Members of the list may be interested to hear about two new posts currently advertised at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies.

1) Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Reader in Baltic Politics
2) Lecturer/Senior Lecturer/Reader in Finnish Studies

"More information about both posts is available at www.ssees.ucl.ac.uk/academic.htm. Closing date is 1st May 2007."


4. Finally, money matters. I've been told that our group will receive £850 in basic subsidy this year. As always, I'm open to suggestions - seminars, workhops, etc - as to how this money could be spent. Let me have any ideas that you might have.


I hope to see some of you in Bath next week for the PSA conference. Have a good Easter.

Best,

Nick.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/statsvetenskap

2007-03-20

Scandinavian Politics: Finnish election

Hej to all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Here's a report of Sunday's parliamentary election in Finland, kindly provided by Professor Tapio Raunio of the University of Tampere.

----------
The Finnish parliamentary election of 18 March produced a major victory for the centre-right parties, with particularly the conservative National Coalition achieving a very good result. The populist True Finns more than doubled their vote share from the 2003 elections.

The leading government party, the Centre, maintained its position as the largest party, with 51 seats and 23.1% of the vote. This means that the government formation negotiations will be led by the Centre and the highly popular Matti Vanhanen will most probably continue as prime minister in the new cabinet. The National Coalition gained 3.7% and ten seats, taking it to 50 seats and 22.3% of the votes. This positive result is at least partly explained by the presence of former party chair and presidential candidate Sauli Niinistö in the campaign. Niinistö won a staggering 60,498 votes in the Uusimaa electoral district (13% of those cast in the constituency), the all-time high won by an individual candidate in Finland. Also, the current party chair, Jyrki Katainen, emerged as a confident leader whose youthful and fresh image gave a healthy boost to the campaign.

The third large party, the Social Democrats, fared very poorly, winning only 21.4% of the vote and 45 seats. While SDP probably suffered from the low turnout, party leader Eero Heinäluoma never managed to convince the electorate – or even his own party voters – of his leadership abilities.

Moving to the smaller parties, the Left Alliance saw its vote share decline, ending up with 8.8% and 17 MPs. The Greens won 8.5% and 15 seats, but significantly their party leader, Tarja Cronberg, failed to renew her seat and hence the party may elect a new leader later this spring. The Christian Democrats (4.9%, 7 MPs) and the Swedish People’s Party (4.5%, 10 MPs including the representative from the Åland Islands) by and large held on to their seat and vote shares. True Finns, on the other hand, won 4.0% and 5 MPs, an increase of 2.4% from the 2003 elections. The party chair, Timo Soini, has an outgoing personality and excellent debating skills that clearly benefited the True Finns’ campaign.

The likeliest coalition alternative is a centre-right cabinet formed by the Centre, the National Coalition and the Swedish People’s Party. Should this become reality, Finnish parliamentary politics might become a bit livelier and more interesting than before, as the opposition would also be ideologically more cohesive than has been the case since the 1995 elections. However, the bad news for Finnish democracy was the turnout of 67.8% (65% including Finns residing abroad) – the lowest since the Second World War. Considering that the Eduskunta is currently celebrating its centenary, the steadily declining turnout (with the exception of the 2003 elections) casts a long shadow over these celebrations. But at least the women candidates proved successful: the new Eduskunta has 84 female MPs (42%), the highest share recorded in the history of the Finnish parliament.

(Please note that the vote and seat shares reported here are not based on final results confirmed by the state authorities.)
----------

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/statsvetenskap

2007-03-13

Scandinavian Politics: pre-conference notices

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Just a few brief notices before the PSA conference in a few weeks.

1. Our panel, with a revised line-up, has been scheduled for the Thursday morning (April 12th). Details can be found at the conference website (www.psa.ac.uk/2007) or, more quickly, via links on our own group's website (see below).

2. Our group meeting has also been scheduled. It's on the same day, at 13.20 in 8W2.19. If anyone would like to raise any matters at this meeting, let me know. Otherwise, I'll just briefly relate the state of the group's finances and outline some projects for the immediate future.

3. It might be nice to meet for a group curry (or some variant) on the conference's first night, the Wednesday. I suggest that the default option is that we meet in the bar (assuming there is a central one on campus) at 19.00. If there's any confusion, which is not entirely inconceivable, then my English mobile number is +44 (0)7986-236 987. Of course, if you have other plans, no problem at all.

4. For postgraduates who are attending the conference to give a Nordic-related paper, the group's funds should stretch to a small subsidy, perhaps of around £100, depending on circumstances. If anyone feels that he or she might be entitled to this subsidy, let me know.

Meanwhile, don't forget about Lee Miles's workshop, which our group is co-sponsoring, on The EU and the Nordic States: Fusion and Future. It's on April 26th. Details are available via our group's website.

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/statsvetenskap

2007-02-27

call for papers - The Image of Sweden

Hej to all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

This call for papers is on behalf of Mary Hilson (University College London).

----------

CALL FOR PAPERS - "The Image of Sweden - comparisons over time and space"

Session to European Social Science History Conference, Lisbon, 27 Feb to 1 March 2008.

Paper proposals are invited for a session for the ESSHC 2008 (www.iisg.nl/esshc). Please submit abstracts of no more than 500 words, in English, to Mary Hilson (m.hilson@ucl.ac.uk) or Jenny Andersson (jenny.andersson@sh.se) no later than 23 March 2007 (the deadline for submitting the proposal to the ESSHC is 1 April).

THE IMAGE OF SWEDEN - COMPARISONS OVER TIME AND SPACE

The Nordic countries, and particularly Sweden, have functioned as a role model and trope in political discourse in Europe and elsewhere. The 'Model', characterised foremost by its coupling of economic efficiency and social welfare, has been a source of influence for various political discourses, mainly on the Left, from Marquis Childs' well-known characterisation of Sweden as the 'middle way' during the 1930s to contemporary interest among politicians such as Gordon Brown and Ségolène Royal. As the Polish historian Kazimierz Musial has argued, the Nordic countries have been seen to embody a particular version of modernity, a modernity defined by a specific political socio-economic rationality, a pragmatic social engineering, a democratic consensus culture, and a modernist logic of embracing economic and technological change.

In this manner, the idea of the Nordic model has often acted as a utopia, a place where one looks for influence and inspiration for the construction of societies on the European continent and elsewhere. Correspondingly, for discourses mainly of the Anglo-Saxon or American right, Sweden has been a dystopia, a quasi-totalitarian system associated with control, melancholy and suicide. A utopia, in Reinhart Kosellecks' term, is a place to which dreams and aspirations not judged possible in the immediate time horizon or within the specific spatial context are relocated, for instance, the dream of equality.

Importantly, utopia is not only the sphere of the desirable but also the sphere of what is deemed near impossible in the present, or in the specific political space. The projection of political dreams onto a utopia in the form of the small countries in the north of Europe can thus reveal something not only about the aspirations of those political discourses which have been inspired by the north, but also about the limits of these discourses and their perceptions of the cultural, social, economic and strategic problems in domestic political struggles. The gaze on Sweden is thus a reflection - projection, deflection - of various European political and cultural struggles. Similarly, the European gaze on Norden has a constructive role in the interior construction of Norden. In periods of praise, it leads to self-images of grandeur. In periods of crisis and critique, such as in the 1990s, it adds to the erosion of self-esteem and casts doubt on the specificity and validity of the Model and the related question of who we are.

The aim of this session is to examine the dynamics of this omplicated interplay between images and self-images in the cultural, social and economic construction of Norden, from a multitude of perspectives and settings. We are interested in the motivations and rationales for interest in the Nordic model from other political contexts at different points in time during the 20th century, and in how these displays of interest interact with self-images within Norden. Our emphasis is thus on the reflective logic in this as a complicated process of cultural and political interaction over time, that, from the 1930s to the late 1990s and 2000s, displays also ongoing reinterpretation and rereading of what Norden is in line with changes in European politics. We also hope to shed light on aspects of Norden that are little understood, such as the influence of Norden in extreme left and right wing discourses. We invite proposals for papers around these themes.

Session organisers:
Jenny Andersson, Institute of Contemporary History, Södertörn University
College, Stockholm, jenny.andersson@sh.se
Mary Hilson, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London, m.hilson@ucl.ac.uk

----------

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/statsvetenskap

Please feel free to forward this message to anyone who might be interested. To join the Scandinavian Politics mailing list, send a message to me, the convenor (nicholas.aylott@sh.se). If you want to send something to the list, or if you don't want to receive these occasional messages, just let me know. See also www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/scandinavia/

2007-02-13

Conference on the Finnish presidency of the EU, March 7th

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

I'm forwarding a message from Professor Clive Archer, director of the
Manchester European Research Institute.

----------
There will be an all-day UACES-sponsored conference on the Finnish
Presidency of the European Union, held in Manchester on Weds, 7 March 2007.

The conference will be addressed by Markku Keinänen, Director of the
Unit for General European Affairs & Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Finland, and by Teija Tiilikainen, University of Helsinki, and
Lee Miles, University of Liverpool, who will assess the success or
otherwise of the presidency. David Howarth, University of Edinburgh,
Gary Titley MEP and Antti Suvanto, Bank of Finland, will look at
progress in internal policies, while Richard Whitman, University of
Bath, and Dianna Melrose, (FCO) will appraise external relations.

The conference should be useful for those wishing an update on recent EU
activities, and will also provide a network with officials. The Finnish
Embassy in London is sponsoring a reception, and the programme is
co-sponsored by UACES, the Finnish Institute in London, the Jean Monnet
Centre of Excellence in Manchester and the Manchester European Research
Institute.

Those wishing to attend should contact Tobias Etzold
(tobias.etzold@student.mmu.ac.uk).
----------

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/statsvetenskap

2007-01-19

Swedish Social Democrats' new leader

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

It's official: the next leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party will be Mona Sahlin. As became clear yesterday, she will be the only candidate for the post when, in March, a special party congress chooses – or, in practice, rubber stamps – the new chair of the party organisation.

So much could be written about this development, but I'll restrict myself to raising briefly a few aspects.

Sahlin will be the party's first woman leader in its nearly 120 years of existence. She is only the second to be chosen in opposition; all her predecessors have been prime minister at some stage. On a personal level, her designation represents an extraordinary political comeback, after she withdrew from leadership contention in 1996 after her chaotic personal finances (minor misuse of government credit cards, unpaid bills and parking fines) came to light.

For me, most fascinating has been the Social Democrats' method of choosing its leader. The other day the Moderate prime minister, Fredrick Reinfeldt, mentioned that it seemed to have had two basic criteria: first, that none of the contenders should say anything about politics; and, second, that none of them should be a man. He called the whole process "very strange"; and, in some ways, it is. Until the 1960s the British Conservative Party leader used to "emerge" rather than be elected, a system that everyone now regards as archaic. But that is pretty much how Sahlin has been chosen. She has "emerged" as potential rivals have backed out, which in most cases they did as they realised that Sahlin was going to "emerge" in front of them.

At the heart of the process has been a very Swedish institution, the "election committee" (valbereddning). In many organisations (including university departments), there is no really open campaign between candidates to a leadership or representative position. Instead, the election committee sounds out the constituency and eventually proposes a candidate (or slate of candidates) that it feels has the best chance of achieving the broadest support – which is what the Social Democrats' election committee did yesterday. The final vote in that constituency is thus often – though not always – a confirmation of this perception, as the election committee's preferred candidate is the only one who thinks it worth standing.

Strange this may be to some, but there is a point to it. As the chair of the Social Democrats' election committee argued, more open competition between candidates is a recipe for factional infighting in a political party. Social Democrats can now rally round Sahlin and pretend that they supported her all along. The process also allowed the party's women's league, early on, to insist that the new leader be a woman, and thus implicitly to threaten an internal explosion if the election committee didn't propose one.

So, while everyone expects her leadership style to be more collegial than that of her predecessor, no one really knows where Sahlin will lead the party policy-wise. In the 1980s and early 1990s, as a young MP and then a young minister, she acquired the reputation of belonging to the right of the party, which is the main reason why she is deeply distrusted by many on the Social Democrats' left, especially trade-union activists. (The revelation today that she went 11 years without being a member of a union, and only joined one last December, will not help her.) Since her ministerial comeback in 1998, she has, as far as I can recall, said pretty much nothing about economic or, especially, labour market issues. But she has taken some pretty radical positions on social issues like equality of the sexes and the integration of immigrants.

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/statsvetenskap

2007-01-10

The Nordic countries in 2006

Hej to all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Mary Hilson of University College London (m.hilson@ucl.ac.uk) has kindly offered members of the list an exclusive preview of her summary of Nordic politics in 2006, which she's compiled for the Annual Register (a journal that, according to its website, "began publication in 1758...[and]...is now published by Longmans").

Mary writes that the Register's editor "has agreed that I can circulate this to the list, as long as it is made clear that this is appearing in the Annual Register and that it should not be quoted or cited without permission." Mary also says that she would welcome "any comments on content, accuracy, etc".

I attach the entry.

Best,

Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University College
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/statsvetenskap

Please feel free to forward this message to anyone who might be
interested. To join the Scandinavian Politics mailing list, send a
message to me, the convenor (nicholas.aylott@sh.se). If you want to send
something to the list, or if you don't want to receive these occasional
messages, just let me know. See also www.psa.ac.uk/spgrp/scandinavia/

Blog Archive