The first book-length comparative analysis of voting behaviour in the five Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. Leading scholars of the national teams of election studies presents a detailed account of voter turnout, party identification, satisfaction with democracy, preferential voting, government support and party choice in the Nordic countries. The five-nation study is based on a comparative data set prepared uniquely for this book project that allows for a comprehensive analysis of the diversity in voting behaviour within the Nordic countries as well as the discrepancies between Nordic and non-Nordic countries. The book challenges a widespread practice to group the Nordic countries together in comparative analyses. The general claim, substantiated by a unique and extensive empirical analysis of voter behaviour, is that the dissimilarities between the Nordic countries are in fact so large - both in terms of institutional settings and micro-level voting behaviour - that it is not justified to make general claims of a Nordic voter.In other words, the old story of 'remarkable similarities' will be substituted with numerous examples of 'remarkable dissimilarities' between the Nordic countries.
Author Biography:
Asa Bengtsson PhD is professor in political science at Mid Sweden University and currently works as Academy Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science, Abo Akademi University. She is a member of the Finnish National Election Studies steering group and collaborates on several comparative research projects, including the Comparative Candidate Study and The True European Voter. Her research focuses on political opinion and behaviour, and she has a specific interest in attitudes towards political processes, preferential voting patterns, roles of representation, economic voting and minority politics. Bengtsson has published books, edited volumes and articles in, among others, European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties and Scandinavian Political Studies. Kasper M Hansen is professor of political science with special responsibilities in applied quantitative methodology at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Political Science. His research focuses on applied research in democracy, political behaviour (particularly voting behaviour) and public opinion. Hansen has published a number of articles in the European Journal of Political Research, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, Public Choice, Electoral Studies, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, Scandinavian Political Studies, Public Administration, Politica, Okonomi & Politik, and Metode & Data. Hansen is part of the team conducting the Danish National Election Study. At present, he is principally involved in a large voter turnout research project and in an electoral campaign project. See www.kaspermhansen.eu Olafur P Haroarson PhD is professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Political Science, University of Iceland. His research focus is on electoral behaviour, public opinion, and democracy. He has been the principal investigator of the Icelandic election study from its beginning in 1983, and takes part in international projects, including the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), and the True European Voter. Haroarson has published books, book chapters and journal articles, eg in Electoral Studies and European Journal of Political Research. He sits on the Executive Committee of the ECPR. Hanne Marthe Narud (died July 2012) was professor of political science at the University of Oslo. Her main research focus was on coalition behaviour, political recruiting, and voting behaviour. She published articles in Comparative Sociology, European Journal of Political Research, Electoral Studies, West European Politics, Scandinavian Political Studies, Party Politics, Journal of Legislative Studies, Journal of Theoretical Politics and Acta Politica, in addition to numerous contributions to books in Norwegian and English. She also wrote a book with Henry Valen on political representation in a multiparty system. She was frequently used as commentator on Norwegian politics in the news media. Henrik Oscarsson is professor in electoral studies at the University of Gothenburg. His research focus is on representative democracy, opinion formation, voting behaviour and political methodology. Oscarsson is research director of the SOM Institute at UoG and head of the Swedish National Election Studies programme (SNES). He has published numerous monographs, edited volumes, book chapters and articles (in Scandinavian Political Studies and Party Politics) on democracy, public opinion, political behaviour and social science methodology.
