Publisher's Synopsis
The book is primarily a description of a set of political events and structures in Scandinavia coherently presented around the question of political consensus. This book fills a significant gap in instructional materials on Western Europe and orients scholars to a rich body of data and studies on the Nordic democracies.;How much do the Scandinavian states have in common politically? That is the central question in this review of current political developments in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.;In particular, is it possible to characterize these countries as being a distinct group of consensual democracies within the mainstream of western Europe? A definition of consensual democracy is proposed as a theme against which patterns of domestic and international policy-making in the region are examined, in order to locate distinguishing elements within its political landscape. These are viewed against the perspectives of the historical structuring of the mass politics; the pattern of social cleavages and partisan conflict since the World War II; and the major political institutions of the nation states. The study concludes, that after a turbulent period in the 1970s, new patterns of consensus and conflict are emerging in the 1980s.;The book is aimed at specialists and students of European politics.
