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The Distribution of Political Participation in Norway: Alternative Perspectives on a Problem of Democratic Theory *
Author(s) -
Rose Lawrence E.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9477.1982.tb00264.x
Subject(s) - norwegian , normative , democracy , salient , politics , distribution (mathematics) , political science , positive economics , population , principal (computer security) , sociology , social science , epistemology , law , economics , mathematical analysis , philosophy , linguistics , demography , mathematics , computer science , operating system
How citizen participation is distributed within the population is one of several fundamental questions of general significance to democratic theorists. This article briefly reviews some of the most salient normative arguments regarding the distribution of democratic citizen participation and then turns to the principal conceptual‐methodological issues to be encountered when considering the basic empirical question. Against this background the Norwegian case is discussed in detail, first in light of prior synchronic investigations, then by means of a diachronic analysis of panel study data from the 1965, 1969 and 1973 national election surveys. These analyses document more broadly based citizen participation in Norway than might otherwise be anticipated and discredit the idea of a cumulative hierarchical overlap pattern of political involvement. The article concludes with a discussion of several considerations relating to these findings, all of which suggest the need for greater sensitivity and explicitness among those who would advance claims or comparisons regarding the distribution of citizen participation in modern democracies.