Norway : Elites on Trial (Nations of the Modern World: Europe)
Edition: Reissue edition
Publisher: Westview Press
Published: November 20, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 192
ISBN-13: 9780813332000
Subjects: Political structure & processes; Public Affairs & Administration; Political Science; Contemporary Politics - Europe; Public Administration; Politics / Current Events; Politics/International Relations; Norway; Economic Conditions; Government - Comparative; Political Process - General; Political Science / Economic Conditions; Political Science-Government - Comparative; Political Science-Political Process - General; Western Europe; Comparative Politics; International Relations; Geography; 1945-; Politics and government
First sentence: On May 1, 1960, the U.S. Air Force pilot Francis Gary Powers was shot down in a U-2 spy plane over Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union.
Description: "Norway is by history and culture very much a Scandinavian nation with its own unique profile. This book analyzes the factors that have shaped the sociocultural fabric of Norwegian politics. One of the most important themes Heidar analyzes is the power of the periphery both in social as well as geographic terms. In the geographic sense, Norway is a small nation, and although it has been able to remain economically and politically stable, it is situated on the European flank.

It is therefore dependent upon and vulnerable to external economic and political developments. In critical periods of its history, Norway's size has made it an object rather than an initiator of change. In the social sense, Norway has existed as a "periphery nation." It is this multidimensional center-periphery situation that has been crucial in shaping national structures and practices.".

"Another theme that Heidar explores is Norway's enduring egalitarian culture. This book focuses on the primacy of politics in Norway and the role played by the nineteenth-century peasant movement and the twentieth-century labor movement in shaping modern Norway. Today, political and cultural traditions are challenged by the force of globalization. Norway is defined as a stable, parliamentary, multiparty system with a social democratic tradition."--BOOK JACKET.