Changing Nordic Party Systems?

Up until the 1970s the Nordic party systems were known to be stable and rather similar. Since then they have diverged and gained new parties. The Nordic party systems have also been affected by external factors such as membership in the European Union, globalization, social changes, and the appearance of “new politics”. Yet despite all these the changes, most Nordic voters still give their votes to parties older than the electorate itself and these parties still dominate the political scene. Thus despite the presence of new parties, the Nordic party systems seem to have retained/regained a large measure of stability. On the other hand, more parties imply more complexity in the party systems, and different parties ought to imply different party interaction. Herein lays a Nordic puzzle: the stability of old parties, the at least partial stability of national party systems, but changing conditions and some new parties appearing. This paper will provide an overview of the literature on the Nordic party systems and their development over the last decades, and by doing so attempts to identify gaps in our knowledge. Focus will rest on the interaction of these parties with each other in the electoral arena, but other aspects of parties and party systems will be addressed if necessary in order to gain a more complete picture. Based on the literature review, some methodological issues will be examined.