Political Parties and Interest Groups in Norway

Political Parties and Interest Groups in Norway PDF

Author: Elin Haugsgjerd Allern

Publisher: ECPR Press

Published: 2010-12-01

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 0955820367

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

How do today's political parties relate to other organisations? Do they prefer rather distant relationships with a wide range of interest groups – or have they virtually detached themselves from civil society altogether? Scholars seem to agree that traditionally close relationships – such as those between social democratic parties and trade unions – have grown weaker since the 1960s. But to date only limited systematic research has been conducted. While parties and interest groups attract a great deal of attention from political scientists, the links between them have been largely overlooked. This book is an attempt to bridge the gap, starting from the party side of the relationship. It throws new light on the topic by presenting a theory-driven, comprehensive study of Norway's seven major political parties and their relationships with interest groups at the beginning of the new millennium. Based on original and extensive data, including party documents, in-depth interviews with key players and a survey of national party elites, Elin Haugsgjerd Allern paints a nuanced picture of the nature and significance of these relationships and the factors that shape them. A major conclusion is that Norway's parties tend to maintain rather distant but wide-ranging relationships with interest groups today. However, some parties still have fairly strong links with their traditional associates and a narrower network of links with other groups. Hence, Allern also shows that significant differences exist between parties that are apparently exposed to the same social, political and institutional environment.

Politics, Parties, and Parliaments

Politics, Parties, and Parliaments PDF

Author: William R. Shaffer

Publisher: Parliaments & Legislatures

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

William R. Shaffer has written a study of peaceful political change in a democracy, with special emphasis on the crucial role played by parliaments. Striking political change is occurring all over the world, most notably in nations where communism has collapsed. Although such wrenching dislocations must not be overlooked, it is crucial that we also examine change in stable democracies. The research reported in this book focuses upon Norway as a laboratory in which to study democratic political change. Norwegian consensus-style politics utilized a corporatist channel of policy making which had relegated Norway's parliament, the Storting, to a secondary role of rubber-stamping policies developed by the government working together with relevant large interest groups. With the crumbling of political consensus in the 1980s, Shaffer argues, the Storting has assumed much greater importance. From the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, political conflict directed through the electoral channel -- from voters to parties to parliamentary action -- has been crucial to the fragmentation of the post-World War II consensus. Politics, Parties, and Parliaments presents empirical evidence of dramatic political change in both the style and substance of Norwegian politics and policy making.

Norway in Transition

Norway in Transition PDF

Author: Oyvind Osterud

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-18

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 1317970373

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The transformation of Norway is a magnifying glass to processes of political change in European countries generally. In this book, a group of Norway`s most prominent political scientists closely analyzes the forces of change - ranging from the political apparatus, the mode of partisan mobilization, and the development of political trust to the new gender relations and the strains on the established elite consensus. This volume shows how Norway is an embodiment of the Nordic Model. Norwegian society and politics have attracted wide-spread interest for three interrelated reasons – a strikingly egalitarian and cooperative model for public-private relations, a stable and rich country on the outside of the European Union, and a notable engagement in moral policy areas globally. Now the model is in flux for domestic as well as external reasons. Rule by popular consent is in question, with a more fragile chain of governance and a slow erosion of mass parties. The model is transformed from below, through the changing democratic infrastructure, as well as from above, with privatization and market reform in the public sector. The focus is Norway, but the book is a comparative analysis of a paradigm case with relevance far beyond its own borders. This book was previously published as a special issue of the leading journal West European Politics.

After the Mass Party

After the Mass Party PDF

Author: Elin Haugsgjerd Allern

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2015-12-16

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1498516556

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book examines whether parties’ ability to channel voter interests into political institutions has in fact declined in the wake of decline of party membership figures and the increase of state finance of parties. It first looks at relevant empirical studies to summarize what we already know. Second, it presents an in-depth study of Norwegian voters and parties, based on a number of voter, member and parliamentarian surveys conducted between 1990 and 2010. The existing literature is scarce and indecisive, whereas the Norwegian parties still seem to represent voters fairly well, despite the waning of mass parties. The party organizations—the members, activists, and representatives—continue to channel voter opinions into the Parliament. This book argues that the high and persistent policy congruence between voters and parties revealed might be related to party members and mid-level activists still resemble voters socially and politically to a large degree. At the same time, the party competition for votes is also still relatively efficient, and there appears to be some interaction in terms of what happens within party organizations and the stimuli offered by competing parties. Hence, this book challenges the “decline thesis”. It argues that parties can continue to represent, even “after the mass party”. At the same time, it suggests that the persistence of the formal representative structures and the closed candidate selection processes that you still find in Norway and elsewhere could make some parties somewhat more resistant to representative decline than others.

Business Associations and the Financing of Political Parties

Business Associations and the Financing of Political Parties PDF

Author: Arnold J. Heidenheimer

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 9401188947

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Students of government and social power recognize that wherever governmental systems embrace popular elections, the functions and mechanisms of political finance constitute inevitable links of influence between economic structures and political processes. The transmu tation of economic power into political power has been of historic concern from ancient philosophers to modern political scientists. Efforts to discern and interpret the political roles of those engaged in funding candidates and political parties have intensified in recent years. Attention given the subject has deepened substantially in the United States since World War II and, while there have been differ ences in range and quality, serious analytical interests have also developed in numerous other nations around the world. These trends have been accompanied by increasingly more energetic and sophisti cated attempts at comparative analysis. Problems in transnational studies of political processes have always been formidable. The comparative study of political finance has been retarded by difficulties in defining units of analysis that make it possible to identify in some measurable way the effects of political fmance in precise phases of the governing process, e. g. , in the per suasion of voters, in party nominating processes, in executive decision making. Cash transactions, even when known with confidence, consti tute only a partial aspect of political finance. Other shades of economic power may be equally relevant, involving services or goods directly provided, credits and other economic benefits extended or withheld, and the exercise of less tangible but equally potent influence.

Political Leadership in a Global Age

Political Leadership in a Global Age PDF

Author: Jean-Pascal Daloz

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-06-11

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 1351773771

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Title first published in 2003. Responses to globalisation in politics and governance at national, regional and local levels of government in France and Norway are explored in this engaging study.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes