Lise Togeby

Political Implications of Increasing Numbers of Women in the Labor Force

Political scientists generally agree that womens behavior is strongly affected by their growing labor market participation. But how will political life be affected when practically all women in a society work outside the home? Five hypotheses are formulated in this article and tested on data from Denmark: (a) The political involvement and participation of women will increase and reach the level of mens; (b) women will become more feminist, demanding greater gender equality and greater emphasis on reproductive values; (c) women will move to the left on almost all political issues; (d) the political dominance of men over women in the family will disappear; and (e) political resources as well as situational factors will influence men and women in the same way.

Interethnic tolerance, education, and political orientation: Evidence from Denmark

Focusing on the relationship between education and tolerance toward ethnic out-groups in the Danish public, this analysis presents evidence in support of the argument that an important mechanism behind the positive impact of education on tolerance is cognitive constraint: Academic education promotes the ability to connect ideas, and minds equipped with this ability will tend to generalize the norms of the prevailing democratic culture to include ethnic relations. This tendency is particularly apparent when political orientations of the liberal left are added to common democratic norms. The constrained mind that holds left-leaning political beliefs is compelled to express ethnic tolerance. On the other hand, constrained minds permit themselves to be intolerant only when subscribing to right-wing political ideas explicitly at variance with liberal democratic ideals. Interestingly, cognitive constraint is high also in the minority among people lacking in academic education that scores high on tolerance. Compared to their less tolerant peers, the members of this minority are much more likely to be involved in political organizations, for the most part at the ideological left. This indicates that in Denmark such organizations serve a function that in terms of fostering ability to connect ideas is equivalent to the function of academic institutions.

Prejudice and tolerance in a period of increasing ethnic diversity and growing unemployment: Denmark since 1970

Since the end of the 1960s Denmark, once an ethnically homogeneous country, has become more heterogeneous as a result of immigration by foreign workers and refugees. The question is how has this development influenced the attitudes in Denmark towards immigrants? The saliency of the immigrant issue has certainly grown, but contrary to expectations, the level of ethnocentrism has changed very little. If anything, the Danish population has become less prejudiced and more tolerant during the last thirty years. This conclusion, based on a number of national surveys, is even more conspicuous as the level of unemployment has increased in the same period.

Freedom for All? The Strength and Limits of Political Tolerance

Most research on political tolerance relying on the ‘least-liked’ group approach has painted a bleak picture of low and feeble levels of tolerance. An alternative approach, permitting an evaluation of the breadth of tolerance, is combined with the use of survey experiments to demonstrate that tolerance varies considerably across target groups. Specifically, the formation of tolerance judgements is shown to differ depending on a group’s association with violent and non-democratic behaviour. Thus, tolerance is high and resilient towards groups that themselves observe democratic rights – even if these groups are disliked or feared. The theory suggests that this is caused by norms of reciprocity and, contrary to extant research, this article shows that within the limits set by these norms, tolerance is strong.

Elite Transformation in Denmark 1932–1999

Theories concerning the recruitment of the political elite traditionally view the composition of parliament as a result of a multi-phased process, as a kind of an elimination race (Norris, 1997; cf. also Best & Cotta, 2000). In each phase, the candidates who best fulfil the demands of the gatekeepers are selected. Who is selected is the outcome of the interplay of the supply and demand factors, meaning that it depends on the characteristics of the candidates and the priorities of the gatekeepers. Comparative studies reveal that this process varies among countries, meaning that the composition of parliaments also varies. New institutionalism (Ostrom, 1986; Norris, 1997) accounts for this variation in terms of the differences in the national recruitment systems, which create differences in supply and demand.

The political mobilisation of the new middle class in Denmark during the 1970s and 1980s

This article deals with recent changes in political participation in Denmark. A distinction is made between the mobilisation and the supplementary theory of participation. Applying data from samples of younger generations from 1979 and 1988, it is shown that a strong collective mobilisation of the new middle class of well‐educated public sector employees took place through grass‐roots activities during the 1970s. This changed during the 1980s, however, when grass‐roots participation increasingly became a supplement to more conventional forms of political participation.

Where Turnout Holds Firm: The Scandinavian Exceptions

The decline in voter participation in many countries has brought about a conspicuous revival of interest in turnout. The downward trend is generally most pronounced among younger voters, making this development even more worrisome; however, the pattern of decline has not been without exceptions. In all three Scandinavian countries, voter turnout remains relatively high and the overall relative decline has been moderate. Nonetheless, important differences can be observed between the Scandinavian countries. In this chapter, we explore reasons for the Scandinavian exceptionalism but also identify important differences between the Scandinavian countries, which help to shed further light on conditions that facilitate high voting rates.