Cooperation and Conflict

In June 1979 the first direct elections to the European Parliament took place. In Denmark the results constituted a strong deviation from the normal party system. The turnout dropped to nearly half of that at the general elections, and the two biggest parties lost half of their votes, while a new list, the People's Movement against the EC, collected 21% of the vote. This article analyses the electoral behaviour in the European election in order to find an explanation for the deviation. It points out a difference between two conceptions of the election: some saw the election as an expression of party preferences, others as an expression of the fundamental attitude to the EC, a kind of referendum for or against Danish membership of the EC. Half of the electorate are against the EC, but most of them normally vote for pro-European parties, particularly the Social Democrats and the Progress Party. These voters were the crucial group in the Euro-election. Most of them did not vote, but the majority of those who did gave priority to their EC attitude and voted for the People's Movement. A distinct Euro-party system appeared, different from the usual pattern. The social and ideological basis of this new system is investigated, in particular the electoral profile of the People's Movement.

This article presents the main results of a research project on policy diffusion from Sweden to Finland from about 1947. Sixty innovative Swedish policies are compared in detail with Finnish policies introduced later. One-fourth of these cases display more or less identical policies in the two countries. Half of these cases of 'probable diffusion' are then subjected to detailed case study analysis. It turns out that the similarities are indeed results of diffusion from Sweden to Finland, i.e. involve a conscious introduction of Swedish modeis into Finnish politics. No one pattern of diffusion can be observed, but the author suggests that there are four typical kinds of diffusion: political, bureaucratic, corporative and cumulative. In a discussion of implications for further research the author stresses that more attention should be paid to purely domestic factors in the study of Nordic relations. He suggests an increased use of policy analytical methods and perspectives in this enterprise.