Dag Arne Christensen

The left‐wing opposition in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: Cases of Euro‐phobia?

This article maps the three major Left‐Socialist parties in Denmark, Norway and Sweden and their attitude towards European integration. It focuses on why the three parties, despite a common vision of Europe, differ when it comes to the question of membership in the European Union. The analysis stresses that both differences in party history and political context have to be accounted for when explaining the parties’ policy stands.

The 22 July Terrorist Attacks in Norway: Impact on Public Attitudes towards Counterterrorist Authorities

Did the terrorist attacks in Norway affect citizens’ attitudes to security-related institutions and policies? To answer this question this study pools two cross-sectional surveys, collected shortly before and after the 2011 terrorist attacks, to determine the attacks’ effects on peoples attitudes. One important finding is that general support for the institutions responsible for security increased slightly, whereas specific support for government agencies capability to prevent and cope with crises decreased markedly. A second important finding concerns the potential for politicisation of crises: On issues of security, the distance between right-wing voters and other party voters increased after the attack. Irrespective of party attachment, Norwegians have become less satisfied with governmental policies on security-related issues, but dissatisfaction has increased significantly more among right-wing than among left-wing voters. Thus, even in a country where politicians responded to the crisis with an appeal to togetherness and common values, citizens’ attitudes on security policies were politicised.

Does Democracy Decrease Fear of Terrorism

ABSTRACT Fear is an integral part of terrorism. Fighting fear can thus be a crucial part of counterterrorist policies. In the case of terrorism, citizens look to the state for protection. Yet, most studies of terrorist fear emphasize individual-level factors. We lack studies that link fear to features of the state, especially whether democratic states are capable of reducing fear among its citizens. Our study aims to fill part of this research gap by asking whether democratic government reduces or increases fear of terrorism. We find that there is substantial cross-country variance in citizens’ fear of terrorism. The results suggest that fear is more widespread among citizens in non-democratic countries compared to citizens in democratic countries. Actual exposure to terrorist attacks has no impact on citizens’ fear of terrorism when we account for whether the country is a democracy or not. Hence, democratic government displays resilience towards fear mongering.

Electing Mayors with the Supplementary Vote Method: Evidence from Norway

Abstract Both Norway and England have used the supplementary vote (SV) method to elect mayors. SV was intended to elect mayors with a broad popular mandate, and deemed easy for voters to use. Previous research on English mayoral elections focusing on the supply side of the elections has found that voters supporting minority candidates with their first vote face difficulties using the optional second vote to choose among the remaining two top-candidates in municipalities where there are many candidates in the race. A close race, on the other hand, seems to give voters a helping hand in making this choice. Drawing on these findings, we link data on the 48 Norwegian mayoral races to survey data to further explore how the supply side of the elections and individual voter resources affect effective voting and use of the optional second vote. We use both standard logistic regression and multi-level models as statistical tools. The result reveals that 27 out the 48 elected mayors in Norway came out as majority winners (more than 50 per cent of the votes). The analysis suggests that the supply side of the elections is of minor importance for whether voters use their second vote or not. The probability of using the second vote is reduced by age, and voters who claim to understand how the electoral system works use the second vote more frequently. The analysis also reveals considerable variation in the number of first and second votes for the top two candidates (effective votes) between municipalities, and the results suggest that this variability may be explained partly by the closeness of the elections. Voters in municipalities with competitive mayoral races are more likely to vote effectively than voters in municipalities with less competitive elections. At the individual level party members are more likely to vote ineffectively.

Countering Fear: Democratic States’ Ability to Ease Citizens’ Fear of Terrorism

Fighting fear is a crucial part of counterterrorist policies. Faced with terrorism, citizens look to the state for protection. Therefore, our chapter links fear of terrorism to features of the state, especially whether democratic states are capable of reducing fear among its citizens. We employ a cross-national comparative approach using data from the 2014 World Values Survey on a sample of 57,294 individuals across 49 countries. We find that there is substantial cross-country variance in citizens’ fear of terrorism. The results suggest that fear is more widespread among citizens in non-democratic countries compared to citizens in democratic countries. Actual exposure to terrorist attacks has no impact on citizen’s fear of terrorism when we account for whether the country is a democracy or not.

Counterterrorist Legislation and Beliefs in Democracy: A Longitudinal Study

Counterterrorist legislation has been on the rise in many democracies after 9/11. While this may be necessary to strengthen the state’s capacity to detect and avoid terrorist attacks, it may also restrain the liberties of residents in the country where they apply. This chapter asks whether the introduction of counterterrorist legislation affects people’s attitudes towards democracy. We analyse this by combining country-level data on legislative responses to terrorism, and individual-level data on attitudes towards democracy. The findings indicate that the average number of counterterrorist regulation negatively affects satisfaction with democracy, but within each country changes in such legislation do not. Overall, changes in counterterrorist legislation are unrelated to satisfaction with democracy. Why this is the case is an important subject for further research.

The July 22 Terrorist Attacks in Norway and Citizens’ Attitudes Toward Counterterrorist Authorities

Based on two surveys, conducted before and after the 2011 terror attacks in Norway, this chapter studies the attacks’ effects on people’s attitudes toward institutions and governmental policies related to security. The study shows that citizens are less satisfied with governmental policies after the attacks, but there is little change with regard to general confidence in institutions responsible for security. Citizens’ party preferences prior to the attacks are crucial to understanding how individuals respond to security policies after the attack. On issues of security, the distance between right-wing voters and other voters increased after the attack. Overall, Norwegians have become less satisfied with policies on security-related issues. Even in a country where politicians responded to the crisis with an appeal to togetherness and common values, citizens’ attitudes on security policies were politicized.

Does the Type of Service Provider Affect User Satisfaction? Public, For-Profit and Nonprofit Kindergartens, Schools and Nursing Homes in Norway

Does the type of service provider affect user satisfaction? This chapter compares public, for-profit and nonprofit kindergartens, schools and nursing homes in Norway based on recent survey data. Our data allow us to identify respondents with actual experience with specific services and to distinguish between different welfare providers. We found that user satisfaction with private schools and kindergartens is higher than with corresponding public providers. Similarly, for-profit kindergartens enjoy slightly higher levels of user satisfaction than nonprofit providers. In sum, however, differences in user satisfaction are small, and given an overall high level of satisfaction, one should be careful placing too much emphasis on variations between different providers of welfare services in Norway.

The 2015 Norwegian Local Elections: Support for Governing Radical Right Progress Party Plummets and Great Gains for Greens in ‘Second-Order’ Elections

ABSTRACT Two years into the first term of the right wing Conservative/Progress Party coalition government, the 2015 Norwegian local elections displayed many features of a ‘second-order’ election: the governing parties lost considerable support, minor parties did well and voter turnout was low. For the second local elections in a row, political circumstances prevented the far right Progress Party from mobilizing on the anti-immigration issue, adding to the burdens of governing nationally for the first time. The Green Party leveraged its 2013 entry into the national parliament into record support, consolidating the progress made in the 2011 local elections. Although the elections were shaped by national politics, municipal and county variation shows that local political factors did matter.

The Danish Socialist People’s Party: Still Waiting After all These Years

Like its counterparts in Sweden and Norway (see Kos and Olsen in this volume for more on those parties), the major left-socialist party in Denmark, the Danish Socialist People’s Party (Socialistisk Folkeparti – SF), has traditionally been considered non-coalitionable. In the Danish case, this has largely been on account of its opposition to both NATO and EC/ EU membership, as these stances would naturally have caused significant problems between Denmark and these institutions if the SF had ever entered national government. In recent times, however, the Scandinavian left-socialist parties have gone down different paths in terms of their attitudes to government participation. Despite its NATO opposition, the Norwegian Left Socialist Party entered a red–green alliance together with the agrarian Centre Party (Senterpartiet) and the Labour Party (Arbeiderpartiet) after the 2005 general election (see Olsen in this volume). In contrast, the Danish Socialist People’s Party, although more willing to become a government party over time, has filled the role of a support party to social democratic minority governments. The principal focus in this chapter is on how the SF has balanced its strategic options between policy, office and votes (see the introductory chapter about different party goals for more details). How has the party redesigned its policy in order to become an acceptable coalition partner? Which coalition alternatives have been available to the party? Why has SF, despite its willingness, not been able to become a fully fledged member of government?