Hej to members of the Scandinavian Politics Specialist Group's mailing list,
There have been several interesting and/or entertaining developments in Scandinavian politics recently, and I thought I'd send a brief summary to the list.
- In NORWAY, unprecedented coalition talks between the parties of the "red-green" alliance that won a majority of seats (though not votes) in last month's election have concluded successfully. The new government was announced yesterday.
* Labour's leader, Jens Stoltenberg, will of course be the new prime minister. Including his, Labour gets ten of the 19 cabinet seats. One of those is the new foreign minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, described by Aftenposten as "a cosmopolitan, a European [he studied political science in France, apparently] and a red flag for the EU opponents" in the two other coalition parties (although the "suicide clause", by which the coalition agrees to dissolve if one of its number mentions EU membership, remains).
* The Socialist Left gets its first five cabinet positions. More notable is that its leader, Kristin Halvorsen, gets the finance minister's job.
* The Centre Party gets the four remaining places. They include the regional-government portfolio, taken by party leader Åslaug Haga, and the oil-and-energy job, which goes (surprisingly) to an ex-leader, the splendidly named Odd Roger Enoksen.
- In SWEDEN, with less than a year to go now before the election, the field has become even more crowded and even more interesting.
* Two weeks ago, the June List (www.junilistan.se), which did so well in last year's European election, decided that it would contest the national election, too. A recent poll gave it nearly 5 per cent support, which would take it into parliament.
In addition to its soft Euroscepticism ("Yes to Europe, No to an EU state"), the party's preliminary platform has two other pillars: decentralisation ("Shift power into the country") and employment ("A people in work"). The mix could be described as modestly economic liberal, with things like tax rebates for work to improve incentives. But there are a few classic populist crowd-pleasers – decisive referendums on citizens' initiatives, a big cut in the number of MPs – thrown in.
It is far from clear how the coalition of cross-spectrum Eurosceptics that the List attracted so successfully last year will be maintained on the basis of even this fairly parsimonious policy stance. A selection of issues on which the June List's candidates will be expected to set out their "own platforms" implies that a very wide range of opinions among its candidates is envisaged – yet it seems unlikely that many away from the centre-right would sign up to the core platform.
Then there's the organisational challenge. Party leader Nils Lundgren is already talking of "democratising" the List's entirely elite-led internal structure; as yet, it doesn't even have members. How he attempts that will be fascinating to watch.
* What's more, there may be yet more competition in that part of the spectrum. On Sunday a conference of numerous regional "healthcare parties" decided on a basic platform of their own. This, too, looks cautiously to the right. It expresses opposition, for instance, to the government's attempts to stop the engagement of more private companies in delivering healthcare. Still, some of the regional parties are against forming a "Swedish Healthcare Party" to run in the national election. The big decision on whether to do so will be taken on December 3rd.
* Last but certainly not least, Feminist Initiative (www.feministisktinitiativ.se) has had more than its fair share of attention in the Swedish media recently. Just over a month ago, its founding conference confirmed that it would stand in the 2006 election. Even before that congress, however, and certainly since, Feminist Initiative has tested sternly the old dictum that there's no such thing as bad publicity.
For some time, three broad ideological elements have been observable in Feminist Initiative's ranks. There are the "old feminists", associated with earlier political movements and concerned primarily about basic distributional issues. Then there are the radical feminists, who share a sweeping view of the structural oppression of women by men. They have probably been most visibly represented by one of the three "spokespeople" elected by the congress, the former Left Party leader, Gudrun Schyman. Third, there are the "gender feminists", who push "HBT" (homosexual, bisexual, transsexual) interests, and who are often academics associated with post-modern or "queer" theories of gender-construction.
The trouble is, the first and the third of those groups have been in increasingly acrimonious conflict. Last week some astonishingly bitter personal attacks appeared in the media. Several traditional feminists have resigned from their executive positions in Feminist Initiative in protest at the influence exercised by the gender-feminist element. Last week, a central figure in that element - a professor of gender studies and, by all accounts, a rather abrasive personality - had accusations of academic plagiarism thrown at her. She too then resigned from Feminist Initiative's national executive, declaring that, with her subject under such "systematic" attack, she had decided to prioritise its defence over her political engagement.
It will be quite a task for Schyman to lead Feminist Initiative over this disastrous period of infighting. In stark contrast to its profile in the headlines, the new party is currently invisible in the opinion polls.
- Finally, DENMARK has also seen some colourful politics recently. Three weeks ago, the minister of social affairs, Eva Kjer Hansen, declared that inequality can be a dynamic force in society. This, of course, is a scandalous assertion in Scandinavia, and she was forced to retract immediately.
But some of her party colleagues have been less prepared to avoid controversy. A couple of weeks ago, Liberals frustrated at the ultra-pragmatism of Anders Fogh Rasmussen's government launched a new party, which seeks the sort drastic tax-reductions and scaling back of the welfare state that Fogh Rasmussen himself, in his youth, used to advocate. The new party's name in Danish, Liberalisterne (www.liberalisterne.dk), I think is best translated as "Libertarians". But I'm open to alternative suggestions.
Best,
Nick Aylott.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, research fellow (docent/forskarassistent) | Department of Political Science, Umeå University | SE-901 87, Sweden | www.pol.umu.se
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@pol.umu.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/
Showing posts with label parties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parties. Show all posts
2005-10-18
2005-07-08
News
Dear all on the Scandinavian Politics list,
Even though many of you will already be well into your summer breaks, I thought I'd send out a quick message about more Nordic-orientated events.
1. The Scandinavian Specialist Group now has its own website! To be honest, it doesn't contain very much more information that many of you will already have. But it can be built upon, of course. So do give it a quick surf (...). I hope you like its basic, simple style, which is carefully designed to promote a sense of rawness and edginess.
Can I draw your attention to two things in particular?
* If you'd like your name, institutional details and basic research/teaching interests mentioned on the members page (strictly speaking, the mailing-list recipients page), can you let me know? I thought I'd get people actively to say that they're happy for me to post their details.
* There was talk in the last few months about the possibility of the group's holding a special workshop or seminar some time in 2005. That is now off the agenda – pressure of work, etc, etc. Sorry. But something next spring, some time around the PSA conference (at which I expect us to hold panels as usual), is still a possibility.
2. Election fever is mounting in Norway and Sweden. All sorts of coalition-related flirting and rejections are going on in Norway, where there will be an election in September. Meanwhile, in Sweden, where the vote will be held in September 2006, the four-party centre-right "Alliance for Sweden" holds a commanding lead in all the polls over the governing Social Democrats and their two support parties. This raises the real possibility of the first change of government for what would be fully 15 years. But plenty can still happen. Excitingly, this is not least because several new parties look like they will enter the contest – and, unusually, each looks as if it could just arch itself over the bar and win parliamentary seats.
* One likely to entrant is a version of the Eurosceptical JUNE LIST that did so amazingly well in last summer's European elections. It's chair, Nils Lundgren, frequently sounds doubtful (with good reason, if you ask me) about whether his type of cross-spectrum list could work in a national election, in which government office is at stake. But it sounds like his lot are going to try, anyway.
* Another likely contender might be called "WELFARE IN SWEDEN". It would run largely on a more-resources-for-healthcare platform (and if you want my opinion again, the grievance, if not necessarily the proposed remedy, is far from unreasonable). While such a party's chances of clearing the national 4 per cent threshold for gaining parliamentary seats are slim, what it might do is to get in through the back door – in other words, by getting at least 12 per cent in at least one constituency. This is what the Norbotten Party got moderately near to achieving in 2002, and the northern unhappiness that it highlighted then might well be exploited again. A "Healthcare Party" won nearly a quarter of the vote in Norbotten in the county election of 2002.
* The hottest tip of all is the FEMINIST INITIATIVE (Fi), launched with much fanfare in May. But its chances may have been dealt a serious setback by an astonishingly intense debate that has blown up in Sweden (and which I should have written to the list about earlier).
This year, at least two well-known (male) political scientists had written about what they saw as the intolerant and extreme characteristics of certain elements within Swedish feminism. But this latest furore was sparked by a two-part documentary on Swedish televsion, entitled "Könskriget" (The war of the sexes). Screened soon after Fi's launch, it presented an exposé of these radical elements, centred on the main network of women's refuges, an influential professor at Uppsala University and a circle around Margareta Winberg, the former minister for equality of the sexes. Although some of these subjects have bitterly questioned the methods of the (female) investigative reporter behind the programmes, some of the positions attributed to them were eyebrow-raising, to put it rather mildly.
Former Left Party leader Gudrun Schyman, the main figure in Fi, was counter-attacking this week during the annual gathering for political speeches, debate and seminars on the island of Gotland. But although she didn't feature in the documentaries, it might be tough for Schyman's project to recover from her wilingness to associate it to the most radical bits of feminism in the country.
* One group of almost certain non-runners can be among modernisers in the Left Party, some of whom co-ordinate through an association called (roughly) the LEFT'S CHOICE (Vägval vänster). Its congress recently decided that, despite its unhappiness at the Left's apparent shift back towards its communist roots, a breakaway party would not be formed, at least not before the 2006 election. The congress preceded a rash of resignations by Left modernisers at all levels; some, including an MP, have defected to the Greens.
* During last week's seminars on Gotland, credulous journalists also reported that yet another party was to enter the race, when a batch of well-known actors and other arty types launched a CULTURE PARTY. The next day, however, the "party" admitted on its website, and in full-page adverts in the newspapers, that it was a hoax.
The declared aim of the Culture Party, and that of the hoaxers, was and is to attract more public subsidies for "culture" in Sweden. Given that its cost was estimated at SKr200,000 (€21,000) of taxpayers' money, which came via the National Theatre, some observers have suggested that this hilarious bluff might just have undermined rather than promoted its political objective.
Best,
Nick Aylott.
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@pol.umu.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.
Even though many of you will already be well into your summer breaks, I thought I'd send out a quick message about more Nordic-orientated events.
1. The Scandinavian Specialist Group now has its own website! To be honest, it doesn't contain very much more information that many of you will already have. But it can be built upon, of course. So do give it a quick surf (...). I hope you like its basic, simple style, which is carefully designed to promote a sense of rawness and edginess.
Can I draw your attention to two things in particular?
* If you'd like your name, institutional details and basic research/teaching interests mentioned on the members page (strictly speaking, the mailing-list recipients page), can you let me know? I thought I'd get people actively to say that they're happy for me to post their details.
* There was talk in the last few months about the possibility of the group's holding a special workshop or seminar some time in 2005. That is now off the agenda – pressure of work, etc, etc. Sorry. But something next spring, some time around the PSA conference (at which I expect us to hold panels as usual), is still a possibility.
2. Election fever is mounting in Norway and Sweden. All sorts of coalition-related flirting and rejections are going on in Norway, where there will be an election in September. Meanwhile, in Sweden, where the vote will be held in September 2006, the four-party centre-right "Alliance for Sweden" holds a commanding lead in all the polls over the governing Social Democrats and their two support parties. This raises the real possibility of the first change of government for what would be fully 15 years. But plenty can still happen. Excitingly, this is not least because several new parties look like they will enter the contest – and, unusually, each looks as if it could just arch itself over the bar and win parliamentary seats.
* One likely to entrant is a version of the Eurosceptical JUNE LIST that did so amazingly well in last summer's European elections. It's chair, Nils Lundgren, frequently sounds doubtful (with good reason, if you ask me) about whether his type of cross-spectrum list could work in a national election, in which government office is at stake. But it sounds like his lot are going to try, anyway.
* Another likely contender might be called "WELFARE IN SWEDEN". It would run largely on a more-resources-for-healthcare platform (and if you want my opinion again, the grievance, if not necessarily the proposed remedy, is far from unreasonable). While such a party's chances of clearing the national 4 per cent threshold for gaining parliamentary seats are slim, what it might do is to get in through the back door – in other words, by getting at least 12 per cent in at least one constituency. This is what the Norbotten Party got moderately near to achieving in 2002, and the northern unhappiness that it highlighted then might well be exploited again. A "Healthcare Party" won nearly a quarter of the vote in Norbotten in the county election of 2002.
* The hottest tip of all is the FEMINIST INITIATIVE (Fi), launched with much fanfare in May. But its chances may have been dealt a serious setback by an astonishingly intense debate that has blown up in Sweden (and which I should have written to the list about earlier).
This year, at least two well-known (male) political scientists had written about what they saw as the intolerant and extreme characteristics of certain elements within Swedish feminism. But this latest furore was sparked by a two-part documentary on Swedish televsion, entitled "Könskriget" (The war of the sexes). Screened soon after Fi's launch, it presented an exposé of these radical elements, centred on the main network of women's refuges, an influential professor at Uppsala University and a circle around Margareta Winberg, the former minister for equality of the sexes. Although some of these subjects have bitterly questioned the methods of the (female) investigative reporter behind the programmes, some of the positions attributed to them were eyebrow-raising, to put it rather mildly.
Former Left Party leader Gudrun Schyman, the main figure in Fi, was counter-attacking this week during the annual gathering for political speeches, debate and seminars on the island of Gotland. But although she didn't feature in the documentaries, it might be tough for Schyman's project to recover from her wilingness to associate it to the most radical bits of feminism in the country.
* One group of almost certain non-runners can be among modernisers in the Left Party, some of whom co-ordinate through an association called (roughly) the LEFT'S CHOICE (Vägval vänster). Its congress recently decided that, despite its unhappiness at the Left's apparent shift back towards its communist roots, a breakaway party would not be formed, at least not before the 2006 election. The congress preceded a rash of resignations by Left modernisers at all levels; some, including an MP, have defected to the Greens.
* During last week's seminars on Gotland, credulous journalists also reported that yet another party was to enter the race, when a batch of well-known actors and other arty types launched a CULTURE PARTY. The next day, however, the "party" admitted on its website, and in full-page adverts in the newspapers, that it was a hoax.
The declared aim of the Culture Party, and that of the hoaxers, was and is to attract more public subsidies for "culture" in Sweden. Given that its cost was estimated at SKr200,000 (€21,000) of taxpayers' money, which came via the National Theatre, some observers have suggested that this hilarious bluff might just have undermined rather than promoted its political objective.
Best,
Nick Aylott.
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@pol.umu.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.
2005-04-13
news and events
Here is an unusually large number of notices. They concern:
1. last week's PSA conference;
2. the Nansen Colloquium in Manchester;
3. a chair in Scandinavian Studies at University College London;
4. the Danish Social Democrats' new leader;
5. a new, feminist Swedish party;
6. welcome to new members of the list.
-----
1. PSA CONFERENCE. Thanks to all who took part - as paper-presenter, discussant or member of the audience - in our two panels on Scandinavian politics in Leeds last week. I thought they went very well.
-----
-----
2. NANSEN COLLOQUIUM IN MANCHESTER...
...on the subject of 'Promoting Peace', to be held on Tuesday 3 May 2005 in Manchester, as part of the Nansen Series. The colloquium is to be hosted by the Manchester European Research Institute (MERI), Manchester Metropolitan University, in cooperation with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London as part of the Series celebrating Norway's centennial as an independent nation.
Using experience from the Nordic region and the United Kingdom, the utility of 'peace processes' will be examined, using examples of the Balkans, Africa and Sri Lanka.
Speakers and discussants include: Vidar Helgesen, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Elisabeth Rehn, former UN Under-Secretary-General, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Miles Wickstead, DFID, London; Alyson Bailes, Director of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute; Geir Lundestad, Secretary of The Nobel Peace Prize Committee and Director of the Nobel Institute; Sverre Lodgaard, Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
The organizer is Clive Archer, Director of MERI, from whom more details can be obtained (c.archer@mmu.ac.uk).
The University Association for Contemporary European Studies can be found at http://www.uaces.org/
-----
-----
3. A CHAIR IN SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES...
...is being advertised by University College London. "The successful candidate will have a distinguished international reputation in any area of Scandinavian/Nordic Studies." Further details can be found at UCL's website (www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/vacancies/adverts/AY1.html).
-----
-----
4. NEWS: NEW LEADER OF THE DANISH SOCIAL DEMOCRATS
Last night, party members elected the first woman chair of the party organisation. "Gucci" Helle Thorning-Schmidt won 53% of the votes to the 47% obtained by her more leftish rival, Frank Jensen.
If anyone has time to write a quick commentary on the election, on Thorning-Schmidt and on the state of her faction-ridden party, please send it to me, and I'll gladly post it on the list.
-----
-----
5. NEWS: FEMINIST PARTY IN SWEDEN
Since last week, and after months of rumours, Sweden has a new player, a "Feminist Initiative" (www.feministisktinitiativ.se), that aims to field candidates at the next election, in 2006. Not surprisingly, the group's leading figure - though formally, she's just one among 15 members of its executive - is Gudrun Schyman, former Left Party leader. Indeed, although there's been no programme worked out yet, the executive's members have a clearly radical-left profile. Perhaps slightly more surprisingly, the Initiative seems to want to build up a traditional-looking party organisation, with paid-up members and local chapters.
With the left bloc already struggling in the opinion polls, the Social Democrats, the Left and the Greens are all obviously unsettled by this newcomer. And, with the launch of yet another new entrant, a "Healthcare Party", apparently becoming likelier, we could be in for some fun in Swedish party politics.
-----
-----
6. NEW MEMBERS OF THE LIST
Welcome to several new members of the list. The idea is to use it for sending out news, commentaries, book reviews, requests - whatever, really, as long as it has something to do with Nordic politics, public adminstration or international relations. If you have something for distribution, just send it to me, and I'll do the honours.
There is also a group meeting in the pipeline, some time this year. Further information will follow in due course.
-----
Best,
Nick.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, research fellow (docent/forskarassistent) | Department of Political Science, Umeå University | www.pol.umu.se
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@pol.umu.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.
1. last week's PSA conference;
2. the Nansen Colloquium in Manchester;
3. a chair in Scandinavian Studies at University College London;
4. the Danish Social Democrats' new leader;
5. a new, feminist Swedish party;
6. welcome to new members of the list.
-----
1. PSA CONFERENCE. Thanks to all who took part - as paper-presenter, discussant or member of the audience - in our two panels on Scandinavian politics in Leeds last week. I thought they went very well.
-----
-----
2. NANSEN COLLOQUIUM IN MANCHESTER...
...on the subject of 'Promoting Peace', to be held on Tuesday 3 May 2005 in Manchester, as part of the Nansen Series. The colloquium is to be hosted by the Manchester European Research Institute (MERI), Manchester Metropolitan University, in cooperation with the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London as part of the Series celebrating Norway's centennial as an independent nation.
Using experience from the Nordic region and the United Kingdom, the utility of 'peace processes' will be examined, using examples of the Balkans, Africa and Sri Lanka.
Speakers and discussants include: Vidar Helgesen, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Elisabeth Rehn, former UN Under-Secretary-General, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Bosnia and Herzegovina; Miles Wickstead, DFID, London; Alyson Bailes, Director of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute; Geir Lundestad, Secretary of The Nobel Peace Prize Committee and Director of the Nobel Institute; Sverre Lodgaard, Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs.
The organizer is Clive Archer, Director of MERI, from whom more details can be obtained (c.archer@mmu.ac.uk).
The University Association for Contemporary European Studies can be found at http://www.uaces.org/
-----
-----
3. A CHAIR IN SCANDINAVIAN STUDIES...
...is being advertised by University College London. "The successful candidate will have a distinguished international reputation in any area of Scandinavian/Nordic Studies." Further details can be found at UCL's website (www.ucl.ac.uk/hr/vacancies/adverts/AY1.html).
-----
-----
4. NEWS: NEW LEADER OF THE DANISH SOCIAL DEMOCRATS
Last night, party members elected the first woman chair of the party organisation. "Gucci" Helle Thorning-Schmidt won 53% of the votes to the 47% obtained by her more leftish rival, Frank Jensen.
If anyone has time to write a quick commentary on the election, on Thorning-Schmidt and on the state of her faction-ridden party, please send it to me, and I'll gladly post it on the list.
-----
-----
5. NEWS: FEMINIST PARTY IN SWEDEN
Since last week, and after months of rumours, Sweden has a new player, a "Feminist Initiative" (www.feministisktinitiativ.se), that aims to field candidates at the next election, in 2006. Not surprisingly, the group's leading figure - though formally, she's just one among 15 members of its executive - is Gudrun Schyman, former Left Party leader. Indeed, although there's been no programme worked out yet, the executive's members have a clearly radical-left profile. Perhaps slightly more surprisingly, the Initiative seems to want to build up a traditional-looking party organisation, with paid-up members and local chapters.
With the left bloc already struggling in the opinion polls, the Social Democrats, the Left and the Greens are all obviously unsettled by this newcomer. And, with the launch of yet another new entrant, a "Healthcare Party", apparently becoming likelier, we could be in for some fun in Swedish party politics.
-----
-----
6. NEW MEMBERS OF THE LIST
Welcome to several new members of the list. The idea is to use it for sending out news, commentaries, book reviews, requests - whatever, really, as long as it has something to do with Nordic politics, public adminstration or international relations. If you have something for distribution, just send it to me, and I'll do the honours.
There is also a group meeting in the pipeline, some time this year. Further information will follow in due course.
-----
Best,
Nick.
--
Dr Nicholas Aylott, research fellow (docent/forskarassistent) | Department of Political Science, Umeå University | www.pol.umu.se
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@pol.umu.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.
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