follows.
1. POLITICS LATEST. Election fever is gripping NORWAY in the run-up to
the parliamentary election a week today. All sorts of outcomes still
seem possible, but it's looking less likely that the right will win back
power. Furthest out on that flank, the Conservatives have kept open the
possibility of some sort of deal with the Progress Party. But, on the
centre-right, the Christians and Liberals have ruled out anything of the
sort.
Some polls have suggested that the sitting coaltion of Labour, the
Centre and the Socialist Left might yet retain their majority. If those
parties collectively fall short, however, some observers reckon that
Labour might well prefer to govern alone as a single-party minority
government, rather than in a minority coalition.
In SWEDEN, the red-green alliance of Social Democrats, Greens and the
Left, which was inspired by its Norwegian counterpart, stepped up its
efforts yesterday with the publication of a joint article, resembling a
basic seven-point common platform. Interestingly, the red-greens have
edged ahead of the governing coalition in the polls recently, a
development that, as quite often in Sweden, seems to have no obvious,
immediate political cause. Perhaps growing unemployment is finally
taking its toll on the government's support.
Talking of party alliances, and in the words of Flemming Juul
Christiansen of Aarhus University, "a new pre-electoral coalition [was]
definitely born" in DENMARK at the end of August. It comprises the
Social Democrats, whose own poll figures continue to look anemic, and
the seemingly unstoppably rising Socialist People Party.
On August 28th, the two opposition parties presented themselves as a
common alternative to the present government, based on four joint policy
statements, most notably one on tax (introducing, among other elements,
a special tax for people earning more than DKr1m a year), all captured
under the name "Fair Forandring" (Fair Change - an intersting use of the
English word). Posters featuring the two party leaders have also been
printed.
Flemming asks: "Where does this leave the Social Liberals, the
traditional kingmakers of Danish politics, who, with 7-8 seats, gained
significant influence in the governments of the 1990s?" He reckons that
the two allies assume that the Social Liberals will support them, "and
they are probably right". Still, while the Social Liberals do clearly
advocate a change of government, they are currently against the
"symbolic politics" of the "millionaire's tax", as well as the
alliance's decision not to challenge the government on its tough
immigration and enthnic-integration policies.
Many will have heard about the party-finance "scandal" in FINLAND, which
unfolded over the summer. As at least one Finnish colleague has pointed
out to me, it is not exactly extraordinary that trade unions have funded
left-wing parties and big business has funded right-wing parties, even
if such finance has been kept from the public eye. On the other hand,
that public companies have donated significantly to parties across the
spectrum does raise serious questions about what they hoped to get out
of it. If anyone on the list would like to write a fuller account of
this affair, do let me know.
Finally, in ICELAND, the government of the Social Democratic Alliance
and the People's Movement has just about held together, despite the
latter being much less happy than the former with the terms of the
country's deal with Britain and the Netherlands .
2. Then there's the PSA CONFERENCE in Edinburgh at the end of March
2010. I've received the following letter from the convenor.
----------
PSA SPECIALIST GROUPS AT PSA 2010, EDINBURGH
SCANDINAVIAN POLITICS
I am writing to you as convenor of the PSA 60th Anniversary Annual
Conference in Edinburgh in 2010. You will no doubt have seen the call
for papers circulated, along with other preliminary information about
the conference, which runs from 29 March to 1 April 2010.
In 2010 the conference will be entirely city centre-based, with all the
venues for registration, meeting rooms, book exhibition, conference
receptions and the annual dinner in and around George Street in
Edinburgh. This is close to the main railway station and the airport bus
link, with a vast choice of coffee bars and restaurants on hand. I think
it will be one of the most vibrant locations the PSA has ever had.
We have also introduced some innovations to the conference format. In
addition to the usual stand-alone panels, we are offering two
possibilities for workshops for more in-depth discussion and perhaps for
developing ideas and content for books or special issues of journals. We
thought these formats would be especially useful for the PSA's
Specialist Groups:
1. one-day workshops on Monday 29 March, the day preceding the main
conference (Tuesday 30 March to Thursday 1 April). We have a number of
venues available for such workshops and would be able to offer them at a
cost of £75 per participant, including lunch, and
2. workshops loosely modelled on those of ECPR which would run as
sequence of sessions through the main part of the conference. Many
specialist groups have already moved in this direction with three or
four panels organised around a particular theme. We would like to extend
this model and encourage proposals for between six and eight linked
sessions, to which we would allocate a meeting room for the whole
sequence of sessions. As part of the main conference, these workshops
would fall within the standard conference fee/day rates.
Additionally we have extended the Specialist Groups speaker competition
to help support workshops proposals, and increased its budget.
I would like to encourage you to think of these new formats when
developing your programme for PSA 2010. The general deadline for
submission of proposals (online only) is 25 September. If you would need
a little more time to arrange your sessions/workshops that will be
acceptable, but I would appreciate it if you would let me know.
Finally, it would be good to know as soon as possible if your Specialist
Group would like to convene a business meeting during the conference,
and an indication of when you would like this to take place. It is not
possible to guarantee your preference, but we will do our best to
accommodate you.
Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you need any more information.
Further details, guidance and booking forms are available at
http://www.psa.ac.uk/2010/.
With best wishes
Charlie Jeffery
PSA 2010 Convenor
----------
Please let me know if anyone likes the sound of any of these formats and
would like to propose something Nordic-orientated.
Something similar can be said of the following, which I've also received.
----------
CALL FOR PAPERS: PSA 60TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE, EDINBURGH, 29 MARCH –
1 APRIL 2010
Deadline for paper proposals: 15 September 2009
Title: Party leadership in Western Europe: Strictly Personal?
Convenors: Duncan McDonnell (Turin) and James Newell (Salford)
The Italian Politics Specialist Group and the French Politics and Policy
Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association envisage
sponsoring a workshop on the above topic at the Association's annual
conference to be held in Edinburgh in March/April 2010.
For several years there has in most western European democracies been a
growing 'personalization' of political leadership as a result of
well-known processes of change having to do with
• the role of the mass media in rendering the lives of the individuals
who walk on the public stage 'much more visible than they ever were in
the past' (Thompson, 2000: 6) and allowing politicians to present
themselves not just as leaders, but as 'one of us';
• the switch from 'party-' to 'candidate-centred' campaigning –
declining ideological conflict having shifted attention from position to
valence issues and thus to candidates' competence; television and other
electronic media, by allowing candidates to appeal directly to voters,
having diminished the requirement for good party organisation and thus
the attention to party itself in campaigns;
• the role of declining ideological conflict in shifting the political
battleground to the terrain of morality – with parties increasingly
attempting to compete by fomenting scandal – and thus a growing focus on
matters of personal integrity;
• the rise of 'personal parties' (Calise, 2000), founded (or
re-launched) and led by individuals, with political communication
strategies being almost entirely focussed on these leaders.
But while the causes and concomitants of personal leadership have been
much explored, much less attention has been paid to its possible effects
in terms of the significance of individual leaders. Consequently,
fundamental questions remain unanswered – not least the question of
whether the heightened focus – in political competition – on leaders and
their personal qualities has been accompanied by any growth in their
actual power. This raises a range of closely related questions, such as:
If their power has increased, to what extent, in seeking to understand
political processes and processes of political change, must we now pay
greater attention than we once did to matters of political agency as
compared to matters of structure? What are the factors that account for
the emergence and growth of unusually powerful party leaders? That is,
what are the factors that obstruct and enhance their efforts to act as
significant agents of change?
We invite papers exploring, from a single-country or a cross-national
perspective, any of these themes. We are especially interested in
studies of personal party leadership which could shed light on the
Italian experience and the extent to which the role of an unusually
powerful leader like Silvio Berlusconi represents a uniquely Italian
phenomenon as opposed to being merely a rather extreme example of a more
widespread, cross-national phenomenon. However, papers that explore the
foregoing themes by drawing on alternative comparisons in Western Europe
are equally welcome.
Paper abstracts (circa 250 words) should be e-mailed by 15 September to:
Duncan McDonnell (duncan.mcdonnell@unito.it ) and Jim Newell
(j.l.newell@salford.ac.uk)
For more information, please visit the conference website at:
http://www.psa.ac.uk/2010/
----------
Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, senior lecturer (docent) in political science
School of Social Sciences, Södertörn University, Stockholm
SE-141 89 Huddinge, Sweden
www.sh.se/statsvetenskap
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