Democracy in Scandinavia

This book is about the distinctive features of Scandinavian democracy, the state of Scandinavian democracy and the classification of the Scandinavian democracies. It breaks new ground in challenging the established status of the Scandinavian countries as 'consensus model democracies', and looks at the distinctive features of the Scandinavian political system, compared with the Westminster model of democracy. This book will serve as a textbook for courses on Scandinavian politics and legislative studies and will provide essential reading for those interested in comparative politics, legislative studies and policy-making in the smaller European democracies. It is a perfect companion volume to "Scandinavian Politics Today".

1. Analysing the Nordic region: a block of distinctive consensus model democracies?; 2. Preferential list voting systems in Denmark, Finland and Sweden: a challenge to the party democracy model?; 3. The Scandinavian party system(s) since 1970: less unidimensional and less distinctive?; 4. The strength of social democracy on mainland Scandinavia: continued dominance or incipient decomposition?; 5. The diversity of coalition types and the frequency of minority governments: a distinctively Scandinavian form of parliamentarism?; 6. Corporatist interest group systems: (still) a distinctive Scandinavian trait?; 7. A common denominator between Westminster and the Nordic region? The growing importance of the office of Prime Minister; 8. The state of Scandinavian democracy: democracy "in a state"?; 9. Analysing parliamentary opposition parties: both policy actors and policy arenas?; 10. Policy-making in the Finnish and Swedish opposition parties; 11. The 2003 midsummer bomb and the centre party's 'decisive action strategy': a case of office-seeking with a capital 'O'; 12. Minority government, shifting majorities and multilateral opposition: Sweden in the new millennium; Conclusion. Democracy in Scandinavia: consensual, majoritarian or mixed?

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