Martin Åberg

Local candidate lists Historical artefacts or a novel phenomenon? A research note

Using Sweden as an example, we propose the hypothesis that local candidate lists rest on a different rationale compared to national party lists, more specifically a rationality that has developed as a result of an altered relationship between the local and national levels and is expressed in terms of localism. The emergence of new local lists is most likely an effect of the challenges to the welfare state posed in the past 40 years. However, although local lists are essentially a recent phenomenon, our examples suggest that their existence can also be explained in terms of historical patterns of dissent from and resistance to state intervention at the local level.

The Formation of Swedish Independent Local Lists, 1990–2015.: A study into the sources of non-diffusion

In this comparative case-study, elements of diffusion theory are used to examine local conditions conducive to political organization in terms of independent local lists (ILLs). Empirical evidence supports the formulation of three hypotheses for future and more systematic research into the problem: a hypothesis of size, an elite-hypothesis and a mobilization-hypothesis. Although several factors are likely to play a role, the results suggest particularly that ILLs are less likely to occur in localities lacking historical legacies in terms of popular mobilization.

Democratization and Secularization: Towards a Process-Oriented Model

ABSTRACT The role of secularization remains underdeveloped in theoretical studies of democratization. We hold that the relation between the two processes is difficult to analyse by help of standard, cross-sectional analysis. We therefore propose a process-oriented model of democratization in relation to secularization. We suggest that these processes do not unfold in random patterns. Theoretically they follow one of four distinct paths: democratization may precede secularization, secularization may precede democratization, democratization may occur without secularization, and democratization and secularization may occur as parallel processes. The contrasts between our model and cross-sectional analysis become particularly obvious when the first and the fourth paths are considered in historical perspective: secularism (as an independent variable) is in both cases positively correlated with democracy (the dependent variable), even though these processes are reversed temporally (path one), or even occur simultaneously (path four). The model therefore demonstrates the need for further research on the relation between democratization and secularization. This includes the problem of why certain states tend to follow certain paths; whether countries may shift between paths; the problem of democratic consolidation; the role of state-formation to secularization and democratization; and the contextual dependence of the model, including the relation between institutions and values/behaviour.

Elusive alliance : The German occupation of Poland in World War I

Jesse Kauffmans study ties in with a recent trend in the extensive research on the First World War. Its theme is the German occupations, specifically the policies adopted and implemented in the Im...

Liberalism and Revivalism. A Comparative Case Study of Liberal Ideology, Individualism, and Revivalism in Schleswig-Holstein and Värmland, ca. 1860–1920

Only rarely have the non-secular roots of modern political individualism been subject to study. In this article I forward the hypothesis that modern political individualism, as expressed by 19th-century liberalism, was a result of individualistic, low Church and nonconformist revivals to the same extent that it was a product of secular rationalism. The hypothesis is probed in a comparative case study of rural liberalism in two north European regions, Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) and Värmland (Sweden). I address three key requirements of the hypothesis: that the nonconformist revival movements in 18th and 19th-century northern Europe promoted an individualistic outlook among their followers; that individuality rooted in religious awakenings was congenial to liberal ideology; and that traits of non-secular individualism were incorporated with everyday liberal political discourse and practice.