A Struggle for the Agenda?

Abstract

The aim of the article is to explore electoral strategies employed by Norwegian party elites to handle the European issue between 1989 and 1995. On the basis of the literature on party strategies -especially agenda-setting -I present a hypothesis on selective emphasis in the party elites' communication to the electorate. The hypothesis predicts strong emphasis on the EU issue in the anti-EU parties, while conflicting aims -maximizing votes in elections and winning the referendum on EU membership -will lead the pro-EU parties to downplay the issue. To test this prediction, the contents of party programmes, questions asked during Question Time in parliament, and a televised party leader debate are analysed. The results are mixed; agenda-setting efforts seem to vary with different communication channels. While the hypothesis was supported in the case of the television debate, no selective emphasis was found in the party programmes.

Back to the Archives? A Critique of the Danish Part of the Manifesto Dataset

“…to analyze political agendas – e.g. Saglie 1998; Green‐Pedersen 2004), it has primarily been used as a proxy for party positions across time and countries. When the CMP data has been used, it is often presented as being remarkably reliable and unproblematic for analysis since this has been done before with a great deal of success.…”

Er dårlige data bedre end ingen data?

“…På den anden side må det dog også påpeges, at CMP-dataene ikke kun er skabt til at placere politiske partier på politikdimensioner. For eksempel er dataene også blevet an¬ vendt til at analysere, hvilke emner der er på den politiske dagsorden (se eksem¬ pelvis Saglie, 1998).…”