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.