Scandinavian Politics: Iceland's government falls

Hej to all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Just a very brief note, in a very busy week, on developments in Nordic
politics.

In FINLAND and SWEDEN, the parties are putting together their candidate
lists for the European elections in June. This is a fascinating process,
but I won't go into it here (except to mention that the Swedish
Christian Democrats have got themselves into a right pickle in trying to
keep one of their more conservative figures away from proceedings).

The same thing is happening is DENMARK, but this has been rather
overshadowed by the opening of parliamentary hearings (in which my
compatriot, Ian Manners of the Danish Institute for International
Studies, has been centrally involved) into Denmark's relationship with
the European single currency. The pegged exchange-rate between the krone
and euro has forced the Danish central bank to raise interest rates in
the middle of a recession, à la 1992, which is not very desirable.

The prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has said that a new
referendum on the subject would require support from all the pro-EU
parties, which excludes his government's usual supporters in the Danish
People's Party, but which these days includes the Socialist People's
Party. It's leader, the wily Villy Søvndahl, sounds sceptical; but his
conditions for his party's support for a referendum don't seem
insurmountable. Agreeing to a referendum would remove another obstacle
to the Socialist People's Party's cementing a Norwegian- and
Swedish-style alliance with the Social Democrats (Søvndahl's party has
also been outlining its plans for government, which confirm its move
towards the centre).

But it's ICELAND where, as you've probably heard, it's all happening.

Pressure had been steadily building on the governing coalition of the
broad right-wing Independence Party and the social democratic Alliance.
Protests at the govermnent's and the central bank's handling of the
country's economic catastrophe have been escalating, and, remarkably for
Iceland, turning increasingly violent. On Friday the Independence prime
minister, Geir Haarde, conceded that an early election could be held, in
May (as well as announcing that he was suffering from cancer). On Sunday
the Social Democratic minister of commerce resigned, and called for the
head of the financial regulator to do the same. His party leader,
foreign minister Ingibjorg Gisladottir (herself recovering from the
removal of a brain tumour), called for the head of the central bank -
long-serving former Independence prime minister David Oddsson - to
resign, too. Yesterday the government collapsed.

President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson has asked Gisladottir to try to form a
government, and she's currently negotiating with the Left-Green Movement
over a minority administration. One possible consequence is a quick move
to start an Icelandic application for EU membership, something that's
taken up in this week's Economist
(www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12972641). The
FT's coverage of Iceland's crisis is also good (www.ft.com/iceland).

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/samhallsvetenskaper

Scandinavian Politics: Iceland, Bergen summer school

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Two very quick notices.

1. The Economist this week has a special briefing on Iceland's economic woes (www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12762027).

2. Beneath this message is a copy of a call for papers for the NordWel Summer School 2009, June 7th-12th 2009, in Bergen.

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/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/



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Call for papers: NordWel Summer School 2009, 7-12 June 2009, Bergen
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:20:53 +0200
From: Anna Alanko

Dear recipients,

could you please forward the below message to suitable e-mail lists?
Thank you for your co-operation.

Best regards, Anna Alanko

**
CALL FOR PAPERS:

NordWel Summer School 2009:

"State, Society & Citizen - Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on Welfare
State Development"

Bergen, 7-12 June 2009

NCoE NordWel in cooperation with the Rokkan Centre, the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion and the
Department of Comparative Politics at University of Bergen is
organizing a summer school in Bergen, 7-12 June 2009.

We welcome Ph.D.-students and young researchers from different
backgrounds both within and outside the Nordic countries to
participate in discussing the history of the welfare state, its
preconditions and how we ought to study it.

We invite proposals for papers that deal with welfare and welfare
state in a broad historical perspective.

Please find the detailed call for papers attached or at the NordWel
home page http://blogs.helsinki.fi/nord-wel/summer-school/

PhD students and young researchers interested in participating in the
summer school should send an abstract (1/2 page) and a short biography
by email no later than 10 February 2009 to coordinator Anna Alanko
via e-mail: anna.alanko@helsinki.fi

With best regards,

Anna Alanko
Coordinator
NCoE NordWel
Nordic Centre of Excellence: The Nordic Welfare State - Historical
Foundations and Future Challenges

Dept. of Social Science History
P.O. Box 54 (Snellmaninkatu 14A)
FIN-00014 University of Helsinki

Tel +358 (0)9 191 249 58
Fax +358 (0)9 191 249 42
E-mail anna.alanko@helsinki.fi
Www: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/nord-wel/
NordWel_summerschool_ Call for papers 2009.doc

Scandinavian Politics: mobility fellowships, Nordic politics latest

Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,

Five brief notices.


1. We still have places for one or two papers in the panel proposal submitted to the organisers of the PSA CONFERENCE in Manchester next April (www.psa.ac.uk/2009). Do let me know if your interested.


2. A communication on POSTDCOC MOBILITY from Helsinki University.

-----
The Nordic Centre of Excellence: The Nordic Welfare State - Historical Foundations and Future Challenges (NordWel) announces mobility fellowships for postdoctoral researchers working within the research themes of the Centre.

The mobility fellowship covers a 2 - 12 months visit in one of the institutions participating in the Centre in the time period between 1 July 2009 - 31 December 2010 (please see the attachment for details).

For more information see NordWel's web site: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/nord-wel/

Call for Applications as attachments.
-----


3. No one will have failed to notice that the BANKS CRISIS spread devastatingly into Europe last week. I won't comment on the collapse of Iceland's three main banks, except to refer you to a nice, concise article in this week's Economist (www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12382011); and to speculate gloomily that, with those banks' debts apparently amounting to nine times Iceland's GDP, some very lean years are surely in store for the country.

Rumours persist that Swedish banks' exposure to the collapsed property-bubble in the Baltic states could yet land at least one of them in severe difficulty - although, interestingly, there has also been criticism that such rumours haven't been investigated more energetically by Sweden's economics journalists.


4. Danish party politics displays yet more instability, this time affecting the Social Liberals (insightfully chronicled, as usual, by Jacob Christensen, http://jacobchristensen.name/2008/10/14/amnitzb%c3%b8ll/). But it's Sweden where the fun has really been occurring recently.

Amind the financial crisis, some eyebrows were raised at the timing of a press conference on Wednesday October 8th, at which the Social Democrats and the Greens announced an alliance between them, with the goal of forming a full coalition government after the next election. Even odder, perhaps, was that this alliance was given a specific shelf-life - until 2020, to be precise. But the main talking point was the clear statement that the Left Party, the third member of the quasi-coalition of 1998-2006, was to be exluded from the alliance. This was because of the Left's refusal to be bound to the fairly stringent fiscal norms that all the other parties accept - a radical position that might be an electoral liability for office-seeking parties that were associated with it.

The reaction of the Left was predictably angry: its leaders repeated their pledge to vote against any government that excludes them, including a coalition of Greens and Social Democrats. But what the Social Democratic leader, Mona Sahlin, appears to have "totally misjudged" (to quote a Swedish political columnist) was the subsequent reaction from within her own party. From all quarters of the labour movement came furious protests that it was too soon to marginalise the Left.

Within a couple of days, and to the Greens' obvious frustration, Sahlin had backtracked. The government issue remained open, she said, and talks with the Left would continue. A year and half after becoming party leader, Sahlin's authority has been powerfully weakened. There are also serious doubts now about her cautious, ongoing attempts to nudge the Social Democrats towards the political midfield. And Swedish voters are little the wiser about how the three left-of-centre parties will present themselves in opposition to the governing Alliance for Sweden (whose four leaders have pledged to deepen their parties' co-operation) in 2010.


5. For anyone who's noticed a certain stagnation in our group's website, there are technical problems that I'm trying to resolve with the PSA webmaster.

Best,

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