The Scandinavian party system(s) in transition (?) : a macro-level analysis

• A fifty-year period of tranquility in the Scandinavian party arena was broken in 1970 with the success of the Finnish Rural Party and the Swedish Center Party. Three years later, Denmark and Norway witnessed the break-through of heretofore unknown parties: the Progressive Party, the Center Democrats and the Norwegian Anders Lange's Party. Social Democracy consistently came out as the big loser.This paper focuses on party system stability and its correlates in postwar Scandinavia. What was it that the losing parties failed to adapt to: changing social conflict structures, changing political realities or both?The data from all four countries concur in highlighting the importance of the political as opposed to the sociological. The social changes which manifested themselves in the early '70s, most notably the decrease in class voting, were not dramatic enough to undermine the class character of the party systems. Even the new arrivals make sense in a left-right perspective. The drop in class voting was an asset to whatever party knew how to take advantage of it; and the realigning elections in the early part of this decade testify to the unwillingness rather than the inability of most parties to do so.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Statsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Political Science (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Political science

Statsvetenskap

Political Science

Statskunskap

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)