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Disrupted Exchange and Declining Corporatism: Government Authority and Interest Group Capability in Scandinavia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

PerOla Öberg ,
Torsten Svensson ,
Peter Munk Christiansen ,
Asbjørn Sonne Nørgaard ,
Hilmar Rommetvedt  and
Gunnar Thesen
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Abstract

Denmark, Norway and Sweden are still among the most corporatist democracies in the world. Although corporatism has declined in Scandinavia over the last decades, it still exists, albeit at a lower level. Based on comparative and longitudinal data, we argue that this is a consequence of the disruption of some of the prerequisites to corporatist exchange. Neither governments nor the relevant interest groups in Scandinavia control what their exchange partner desires to the same extent as they did during the heyday of corporatism. Despite the involvement of different factors in the three countries, the main pattern is the same. Consequently, the character of state–interest group relations in Scandinavia is not as distinctive as it used to be.

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Articles
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Government and Opposition , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , 2011 , pp. 365 - 391
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2011.

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