摘要:

This article focuses on coalition termination in Norway and explores the questions: Which issues are severe enough to bring down a coalition government? To what extent are coalition crises caused by a complex bargaining environment? On the basis of a unified model for government solution, three cases are examined: the termination of Borten II in 1971, Willoch III in 1986, and Syse in 1990. The analysis demonstrates that the complexity of the bargaining environment is conditioned by the dimensionality of the party system. The stability of coalitions is restricted by the cleavage structure and the ideological diversity of the system, as parties are polarized along several conflict dimensions. Terminal issues are fundamentally related to the parties' position in the policy space. In order to preserve party identity and unity, political parties change from a cooperative to a competitive strategy when issues belonging to the “heartland” of the parties concerned become sali

ISSN:0080-6757    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9477.1995.tb00153.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Recent developments in Swedish local government and central‐local government relations have been characterized by re‐regulation and cut‐back strategies on the one hand and decentralization and deregulation on the other. In this article these developments are analysed as a dynamic process with contradictory features. Swedish society is becoming more and more differentiated and specialized with fewer mechanisms of collective socialization, but with more economic and strategic calculations on the part of central and local authorities, interest organizations and individuals. New formal rules are developed in order to handle conflicts and enhance public sector legitimacy. In the communes we can identify an ideological shift from viewing the commune as a political institution to regarding it as a service‐producing company. In addition, citizens are increasingly looked upon as individual consumers rather than political citizens. Corresponding organizational solutions such as depoliticization, privatization and freedom of choice have been developed. However, as a reaction to communal consumerism there is also a growing interest in communitarian values. There is an increasing number of examples of people participating in matters of common nature and expressing their belonging to a community. An interesting question for future research is whether the observed contradictory tendencies will increase or decrease the legitimacy of the traditional democratic institutions at the communa

ISSN:0080-6757    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9477.1995.tb00154.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The correspondence between citizens' preferences and the preferences of the elected politicians is a critical concern of democratic institutions. Models founded on the central tendency of politicians' behaviour in elections, such as the median‐voter model and the model of the “uncovered set”, predict that politicians respond to local demands. Other models, notably those that assume imperfectly informed citizens and representatives, predict lack of response. The present article relies on a demand model. We estimate the model by combining survey data for 80 Norwegian municipalities with information on economic, social and demographic factors. The study uses independent surveys to measure the spending preferences of citizens and representatives. The politicians' and the citizens' demand functions are structurally similar, and the article demonstrates that the spending preferences of the representatives are positively related to preferences of the electorate. Alternative interpretations of these findings are disc

ISSN:0080-6757    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9477.1995.tb00155.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1995

数据来源: WILEY