Political Participation in the Social-Democratic State A Normative-Empirical Framework for the Analysis of Decision-Making Involvement in Norway*

The purpose of the paper is to develop an integrated normative-empirical approach for an analysis of decision-making involvement in Norway. The analysis will be based on a national sample survey carried out in early 1981 (N = 1,650). After briefly defending the choice of ‘the social-democratic state’ as a context-specifying term, the discussion turns to problematizations of two central concepts: the political and participation. The result of this exercise is an ‘operational typology of decision-making involvement’ which stipulates eight zdifferent modes of involvement in terms of survey-operational measures. It is argued that the typology covers the entire spectrum of decision-making involvement in Norway; that it is unique in doing so; and that the conceptual differences involved have important normative empirical consequences. These latter are then developed in relation to three dominant perspectives in participation research; the expressivist, the instrumentalist, and the developmentalist points of view. Each of these perspectives is illustrated by a specific research strategy, and concluding remarks are made on the necessary integration of all three for a fuller comprehension of decision-making involvement in the social-democratic state.     

Scoring rule sensitivity to weight selection

This essay examines the sensitivity of collective rankings and winners to the weights used in score vectors that are applied to sets of individual rankings to yield collectieve rankings in a typical additive manner. The paper considers probabilities of getting the same winner and the same collective ranking when different score vectors are used for three-element sets. It then discusses the propensities of score vectors to preserve the orginal winner or collective ranking when one or more elements is removed from this ranking and a lower dimensional score vector is applied to the reduced situation. The latter case is examined for three- and four-element sets. The model used for the assessments is based on equally-likely choices of rankings by individuals and applies to situations that involve large numbers of individuals. Roughly speaking, best agreements and minimum sensitivities center around linear (Borda) score vectors. The greatest discrepancies arise from the so-called plurality and reverse plurality score vectors.     

Sex and parole: A comparison of male and female parolees

Male and female parolees released in 1970 with a two-year follow-up were compared on three basic factors: personal attributes, time served, and parole outcome. The two sexes were substantially different in five commitment offenses, prior prison sentences, age at admission to confinement from which paroled, and alcohol and drug involvement; they were relatively similar in the proportion of prior non-prison sentences. Women, on the average, serve less time in prison before parole than men. The proportion successfully continued on parole is the same for both sexes.