Political Parties

Abstract

Historically, Scandinavian political parties have played an extremely important role as agents of political mobilization. The traditional class parties were social movements, controlling huge numbers of members, most of the media,¹ and a large number of voluntary associations.² This holds not only for the social democratic parties and the labor movement but also for the farmers’ parties and the organization of the rural population.³ Membership of political parties in Scandinavia was among the highest in the world. In 1947, membership in Denmark peaked — at 27 per cent of the electorate — and around 1960, 22 per cent of the Danish and Swedish electorate belonged to political organizations, with Norway and Finland falling only a little behind. As can be seen from Table 4.1, only Austria and Switzerland have reached a similar level, whereas the typical figure was below 10 per cent.