Parties In Denmark Research Articles

Party leadership and party institutionalisation: Three phases of development

Related to the general thesis that different situations call for different leadership skills and orientations, this article focuses upon the changing leadership needs of one type of political party ‐ the ‘entrepreneurial issue party’ ‐ as it matures from birth to institutionalisation. Drawing upon relevant literature on leadership of revolutions, leadership of social movements, leadership of organisations, and leadership generally, the authors present empirical evidence for the argument that different leadership needs exist at three stages of party development: the periods of identification, organisation, and stabilisation. Related propositions are addressed from the experiences of entrepreneurial parties in Denmark and Norway.

In From the Cold? Christian Parties in Scandinavia

The combination of extreme religious homogeneity and advanced secularization is a special feature of the Scandinavian societies as compared to the rest of Europe. This difference largely explains why Christian parties have remained small compared to the rest of Europe. This article surveys the creation and popular following of the Christian parties in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The four parties acquired an image of “moral vigilantes” from the beginning. Their best electoral results, however, are a result of a more general political protest. Despite the recent success of the Swedish party, the parties are not likely to reach a position beyond that of a minor party with basically a moralist image.

Intra‐Party Conflict and Coalitional Behaviour in Denmark and Norway: The Case of ‘Highly Institutionalized’ Parties

The purpose of this article is to analyse the impact of intra‐party conflicts on the coalitional behaviour of highly institutionalized parties in Denmark and Norway. The focus is on how highly institutionalized parties either prevent or cope with internal conflicts. The account proposed is based on the idea that organizational rigidity, that is the lack of heterogeneous and diffused mechanisms for internal dissent, does not allow the party to handle internal dissent in a variety of flexible ways. When inter‐party negotiations induce internal conflicts, members may be forced to leave the party as their primary mechanism for the expression of dissent. A major implication of this view, which is supported by the empirical findings, is that in multi‐party systems where minority situations occur, the most attractive strategy (in terms of bargaining power) for highly institutionalized parties is the formation of informal minority governments. When such parties form. formal minority governments, the party elites tend to impose structural constraints on the day‐to‐day operation of the government and modify their alliance strategy in order to cope with the derived internal conflicts.

Structural Changes and New Cleavages: the Progress Parties in Denmark and Norway

The Progress parties have been variously dubbed 'flash party, protest party', 'tax-revolt party', petty bourgeois protest movement populist party, 'extreme right-wing party' None of these labels passess unambrguously through a critical examination More recently, commentators have some times referred to the Progress parties as conventional bourgeois parties. Such a label is however. also problematic, as the social background or class profile of both parties shows an increasing dewaUun from conventional bourgeois parties Our approach is that the Progress parties must be inter preted in connection with the new cleavages in postindustral society We discuss the Progress parties in relation to cleavages emanating from the welfare state, and in particular to postindustrial materialism and the changed role of the working class

The Progress Party in Denmark is a Class Party - But Which Class?'

The Progress Party in Denmark is a Class Party - But Which Class?'