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
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
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