Immigration as a political issue in Denmark and Sweden

Abstract

Abstract. Studies of party politics and party competition in West European democracies all point to diversification. Non‐economic issues such as the environment, refugees and immigrants or law and order have become increasingly central to party politics. However, there has been surprisingly little interest in explaining variation across time and countries concerning which issues actually become central to party competition. From the sparse literature, two general answers can be discerned. One is societal, focusing on mass media coverage, public opinion and the development of the policy problems related to the issue. The other focuses on the structure of party competition itself – more precisely on the incentives for different parties in drawing attention to different issues. This study stresses the importance of the latter based on a study of the immigration issue in Denmark and Sweden. Party political attention to this issue in the 1990s has been considerably stronger in Denmark than in Sweden. This can be explained by the different strategic situation of the main stream right‐wing parties in the two countries. Focusing on the immigrant issue easily leads to a conflict with the centre‐right, especially social liberal parties. In Sweden, such a conflict would undermine mainstream right‐wing attempts at winning government power. In Denmark, the Social Liberals governed with the Social Democrats in the 1990s, which made it attractive for the main stream right‐wing parties to focus on the issue in order to win government power based on the support of radical right‐wing parties.

Exploiting the Cracks: Wedge Issues in Multiparty Competition

“…Parties on the left are often torn between the preferences of their traditional working class base, which is often weary of immigration, and the better educated middle-class partisans who favor liberal immigration policies. An example of this can be seen in Danish party competition where the Social Liberals are on the right of the Social Democrats on the left-right dimension, but advocate less restrictive immigration policies (Green-Pedersen and Krogstrup 2008). However, in other party systems, this "lack of fit" may be less obvious in party competition since mainstream parties will seek to avoid mobilizing wedge issues that have the potential to drive a wedge between factions in a party or between parties in a coalition.…”

Immigration into the mainstream: Conflicting ideological streams, strategic reasoning and party competition

“…In others, the issue registers temporarily on their electoral radar screen, only to drop off it at subsequent elections (see e.g. Green-Pedersen and Krogstrup, 2008;Pellikann et al, 2007;Cornelius et al, 1994;Thränhardt, 1995). This variance constitutes a puzzle for the study of electoral politics.…”

Weapon of the Weak: One-Minute Speeches in the Israeli Parliament

“…Akirav, Cox and McCubbins (2010) found that in the Knesset the opposition parties' roll rates on exceptional bills such as the budget are higher than their roll rates on ordinary bills. Green-Pedersen and Krogstrup (2008) claimed that in the competition for voters, legislative bills are one way to signal one's priorities to the public.…”

“…Numerous studies have investigated the strength of the opposition in a variety of countries worldwide (e.g., Green-Pedersen & Krogstrup, 2008;Helms, 2008b;Kaiser, 2008;Proksch & Slapin, 2011;Salmond, 2004;Schrire, 2008;Tuttnauer, 2013;Wondwosen, 2009). However, Israel is one country in which there has been little research interest in the opposition (Akirav, Cox, & McCubbins, 2010;Friedberg & Hazan, 2009;Tuttanuer, 2013).…”