Reconsidering Nordic Party Space¹

Abstract

The erosion of the social and economic bases underlying traditional party systems has led analysts to search for new cleavage structures undergirding the present party systems. Meanwhile, analysts have identified a range of issue dimensions that also bear on voters' party preferences. This article studies the degree to which grid-group theory's four political biases of hierarchy, egalitarianism, individualism, and fatalism can make inroads into the left-right dimension's stronghold in accounting for voters' party preference. The analysis draws on a 1999 survey in the five Nordic countries (N = 4,832). The method combines voters' party preferences with their scores on issue dimensions, or political dimensions. Analyses show that conventional party families, with one exception, are not identified along any of the five political orientations. Only the five conservative parties are exclusively identified as a party family on the left-right dimension. Party preference is more closely associated with the left-right dimension than the political biases. Sweden has the purest and simplest party cleavage, whereas Denmark has the most composite one. Across the Nordic countries, the green party family is most dissimilar, whereas the progress siblings are most alike. The left-right dimension accounts well for differences between parties within polities, whereas political biases, and egalitarianism in particular, account well for differences between parties of similar origin across polities.

Is There Demand for Radical Right Populism in the Finnish Electorate?

“…New issues do not fall along the old political cleavages as neatly as they used to and together with broader socio-economic changes, they make the political system less stable (Lane et al 1993;cf. Hellsten 2001;Grendstad 2003). According to Ervasti (1999), the attitudes of Finnish voters towards traditional political questions still clearly reflect their (subjective) social class and a relatively strong left-right polarization.…”

The Right Look: Conservative Politicians Look Better and Their Voters Reward It

“…On the usage and relevance of this terminology in modern politics, see Klingemann (1995), Bobbio (1996) and -for the Nordic countries - Grendstad (2003). Although politically relevant, left-right terminology involves simplification (Mair, 2007), and the exact meaning of the terms differ somewhat between political cultures (Zechmeister, 2006 For our data analysis, the replies were coded from 1 to 5, as indicated above, but the numbers did not appear in the survey.…”

A Cultural Theory of Partisanship and Policy Attitudes

“…However, fatalism was not predictive of ideology. In addition, Grendstad () found that individualists tended to be more supportive of conservative parties and egalitarians tended to be more supportive of left socialist parties across five Nordic countries (also see Grendstad, , ). Finally, Eriksson () found that Republicans tended to prioritize individual agency, whereas Democrats tended to prioritize communion.…”