The Green Breakthrough in Sweden

Based on survey data from the Swedish Election Studies Program, the green breakthrough in Sweden is assessed. In the parliamentary election of 1988, for the first time in 70 years, a new party, the Greens, succeeded in getting representation in the Swedish Riksdag . The future situation of the Greens is very precarious, however. The analysis shows that the party's voters tend to belong to highly volatile groups in the Swedish electorate (young, big city, white collar). Furthermore, the Greens have to confront many different issue publics on environmental issues since a coherent green dimension structuring ordinary people's opinions on environmental issues has not yet developed in Sweden. The alternative green dimension is still to a very large extent an elite phenomenon in Swedish politics.     

Job Satisfaction Among Swedish Mental Health Nursing Staff: A Cross-Sectional Survey

There is limited amount of empirical studies concerning job satisfaction in inpatient psychiatric care. However, job satisfaction has several implications on public administration and management. The objective of this study is to identify factors having positive impact on job satisfaction among Swedish psychiatric nursing staff in an inpatient psychiatric clinic. The cross-sectional study is based on Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory. The survey was distributed among nursing staff at a psychiatric university hospital clinic in Western Sweden. Overall, job satisfaction was rated relatively high, and salary was rated the lowest of all factors investigated. Unlike the premises in Herzberg’s theory, salary showed a positive correlation with job satisfaction and not only in preventing dissatisfaction. Hospital managers must be attentive to salary levels and staff turnover. Psychiatric nursing personnel in Sweden lack competitive salaries, and hospital administrators should encourage nursing staff to improve relationships between staff and managers and establish good relationships among colleagues.     

Dynamic Opinion Representation

Two models of opinion change in a representative democracy are subjected to an empirical test based on data from a series of surveys with voters and members of parliament in Sweden covering the period 1968–1994. An elite-driven opinion model proved to fit the data better than a mass-driven model. Voter opinions shifted more often in the direction of member opinions than vice versa. A run-from-above representation model is more valid for the Swedish case than an idealistic run-from-below model.     

The Victim as Policy Agent? Exploring a Single Case from Denmark

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research - Criminal policy processes often appear abstract and illusive, but sometimes a single criminal incident causes traceable policy impact. This...