Political Science in the Nordic Countries
| Author | Dag Anckar |
| Date | 01 January 1987 |
| Published date | 01 January 1987 |
| DOI | 10.1177/019251218700800106 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
73-
Political
Science
in
the
Nordic
Countries
DAG
ANCKAR
ABSTRACT.
Political
science
has
traditions
in
Finland
and
Sweden,
but
is
a
new
academic
discipline
in
Denmark,
Iceland
and
Norway
where
it
was
introduced
only
after
World
War
II.
The
differences
in
development,
however,
have
not
produced
differences
in
style
and
outlook.
Nordic
political
science
has
been
and
still
is
strongly
dependent
on
basic
influences
from
the
US,
and
descriptions
of
problem
areas
and
research
approaches
in
the
Nordic
countries
may
well
be
carried
out
in
terms
of
similarities
rather
than
dissimilarities.
Recent
discussions
about
the
state
of
the
art
have
expressed
concern
about
tendencies
towards
scientific
disintegration,
manifest
in
the
institutionalization
of
political-science
subfields
and
in
the
growth
of
so-called
sector
research
based
on
short-term
political
priorities.
In
an
essay
on
the
growth
of
the
political-science
profession,
Nils
Elvander
writes:
’Academic
teaching
in
political
science
has
a
relatively
long
history
in
Sweden
compared
with
the
other
Nordic
countries’
(1977:
75).
This
statement
is
echoed
by
another
Swedish
scholar,
Olof
Ruin,
who
maintains
that
Swedish
political
science
research
’is
based
on
quite
a
long
tradition
in
comparison
with
the
other
Nordic
countries’
(1977:
157).
Ruin
points
out
that
a
chair
in
political
science,
the Johan
Skytte
Professor
of
Discourse
and
Politics,
was
established
as
early
as
1622
at
the
University
of Uppsala;
however,
he
admits
that the
scholars
holding
this
chair
did
not
concentrate
on
the
study
of
politics
until
the
1840s.
This
means
that
political
science
has
a
longer
tradition
in
Finland than
in
any
other
Nordic
country.
At
Abo
Academy,
founded
in
1640,
a
chair
of
politics,
the
holder
of
which
was
called
Professor
Politices et
Historiarum,
was
an
integral
part
of
the
university
from
the
beginning.
The
first
holder
of
this
chair
was
Michael
Olai
Wexonius,
one
of the
most
productive
professors
at
the
university,
who
dealt
mainly
with
political
theory
issues
of
that
time
and
in
1647
published
his
most
important
work,
Politica
(Nurmi,
1984).
In
Sweden
and
Finland,
the
academic
study
of politics
was
introduced
on
a
broader
basis
at
the
beginning
of
the
20th
century.
In
Sweden,
political-science
chairs
were
established
at
the
universities
in
Lund
and
Gothenburg
and
later
in
Stockholm,
whereas
in
Finland
a
chair
was
established
at
Abo
Academy
in
19181
and
at
the
University
of
Helsinki
some
years
later.
In
both
countries
additional
chairs
were
introduced
during
the
following
decades.
The
development
of
the
discipline
is
very
different
in
the
other
Nordic
countries,
Denmark,
Norway
and
Iceland.
In
fact,
it
is
questionable
if
one
can
talk
about
a
tradition
at
all
in
these
countries.
In
Denmark
the
first
university
institutes
of
political
science
were
established
at
the
end
of
the
1950s
(Nannestad,
1977),
and
in
Norway
the
first
regular
chair
was
established
in
1965
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