Publications / Reports / 1998 / 1998:015 Professionalization, Political Representation and Geography
Professionalization, Political Representation and Geography
ISBN print: 82-7763-117-0
Pages: 94
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This stydy comprises three independent essays, whose to the relationship between voters and representatives: How are these linkages affected by political and social structure? The first essay, on professionalization of Norwegian politics through the last few decades, describes three main trends: an increasing level of education, the mobilization of women, and an increasing recruitment of persons employed in party organizations. Jointly these tendencies have contributed to changing the character of representation and national politics. The second essay, which deals with the impact of shifting electoral systems in Norway, focuses on conflicting demands for equity of representation, territory versus party. our research suggestes that, although Norwegians have always accepted territorial distortions in favor of peripheral constituencies, ever since the introduction of political parties in the 1880s, public debate has been basically concerned with partisan equity. Center-perihery variations also constitute the main theme of the third essay, which is based upon data four Nordic countries: Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Congruence of attitudes between voters and leaders has been compared on a regional basis for each country, and the analysis indicates that the contrast between center and periphery is sharper in Iceland and Norway than in the old nation states Sweden and Denmark. The protest sentiments among people in the periphery seems to be most pronounced in Norway.