The Nordek Debate
| Published date | 01 March 1975 |
| DOI | 10.1177/001083677501000102 |
| Author | Grete Kværner Ueland |
| Date | 01 March 1975 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The
Nordek
Debate
An
analysis
of
the
attitudes
of
Nordic
elites
toward
the
relationship
between
Nordek
and
the
EC
GRETE
KVÆRNER
UELAND
Institute
for
Political
Science,
University
of
Oslo,
Oslo,
Norway
Ueland,
G.
K.
The
Nordek
Debate:
An
analysis
of
the
attitudes
of
Nordic
elites
toward
the
relationship
between
Nordek
and
the
EC.
Cooperation
and
Conflict,
X,
1975,
1-19.
The
analysis
of
the
argumentation
of
Nordic
Council
representatives
and
the
Nordic
press
regarding
the
realization
of
the
Nordek
plan,
has
tried
to
clarify
how
the
fall
of
the
plan
was
closely
connected
with
different
goals
in
respect
of
the
plan’s
re-
lationship
to
the
European
Communities.
By
means
of
a
quantitative
content
analysis,
we
have
established
the
premises
on
which
the
different
national
and
political
groups
based
their
positions
toward
this
relationship.
The
results
of
our
analysis
point
at
the
existence
of
conflicting
aims
as
regards
the
coordination
of the
plan
with
EC
objec-
tives.
The
debate
about
Nordek
further
seems
to
show
that
security
factors
to
a
con-
siderable
extent
defined
the
framework
also
for
the
functional
aspects
of
Nordic
in-
tegration.
Grete
Kvœrner
Ueland,
Institute
for
Political
Science,
University
of
Oslo,
Oslo,
Norway.
1.
INTRODUCTION
In
the
period
succeeding
World
War
II
an
extension
of
cooperation
between
the
Nordic
countries
has
taken
place
in
several
fields.
As
regards
more
all-embracing
solutions,
however,
the
Nordic
process
of
cooperation
has
been
marked
by
competi-
tion
between
a
Nordic
and
a
European
solution
to
questions
of
cooperation
in
the
economic
and
political
areas,
the
latter
subordinating
Nordic
cooperation
to
a
European
solution.
This
pattern
was
es-
pecially
clear
during
the
period
1968-70,
which
encompasses
the
negotiations
con-
ducted
about
an
extended
economic
plan
of
cooperation
known
as
the
Nordek
plan.
This
Nordic
plan
of
cooperation
’for
the
establishment
of
the
organization
of
Nordic
economic
cooperation’
in
many
ways
stands
out
as
the
hitherto
most
ambitious
attempt
at
constructing
a
framework
encompassing
Nordic
economic
cooperation
in
its
entirety.
The
presentation
of
the
Nordek
treaty
coincided
with
a
clarification
of
the
Euro-
pecan
market
situation,
which
was
a
result
of
the
Hague
meeting
between
the
EC
countries
in
December
1 cJG~,
and
this
led
to
a
direct
confrontation
between
the
Nor-
dic
and
European
alternatives.
This
analysis
has
as
its
primary
objec-
tive
to
clarify
how
the
fall
of
the
Nordek,
plan
stemmed
from
differing
goals
rc-
garding
the
plan’s
relationship
to
the
European
Communities.’:’
It
is
our
intention
in
this
study
to
under-
take
an
analysis
of
national
and
party
political
attitudes
toward
the
relationship
between
the
Nordic
countries
and
the
EC,
concentrating
on
the
way
in
which
these
were
reflected
in
the
debate
about
Nordek.
For
this
purpose
we
have
chosen
to
study
two
special
types
of
elites:
the
rep-
resentatives
to
the
Nordic
Council
session
in
19ïO,
when
the
Nordek
plan
was
up
for
review,
and
the
press
in
the
Nordic
countries
during
a
period
around
this
session.
z
This
article
is
an
edited
version
of
part
of
a
more
extensive
work
dealing
with
the
Nor-
dek
debate
generally:
Grete
Kvoerner
Ueland,
’Debatten
omkring
Nordok -
En
analyse
av
nordiske
elitegruppers
holdninger
til
nordisk
integrasjon’.
Dissertation.
University
of
Oslo,
1973.
2
Our
main
justification
for
choosing
to
investigate
just
these
two
elites
is
that
the
Nordic
Council
constitutes
a
well-defined
debate
universe,
with
approximately
equal
participation
from
all
of
the
countries
concerned.
Furthermore,
from
a
theoretical
viewpoint,
it is
interesting
to
investigate
the
behaviour
of
Nordic
parliamentarians
in
their
capacity
as
Nordic
Council
rep-
resentatives -
where
they
may
be
said
to
constitute
an
integration
elite
on
the
system
level -
to
see
the
extent
to
which
their
attitudes
reflect
a
national
or
a
more
Nordic
orientation.
Finally,
by
studying
the
Nor-
dic
press,
we
will
get
an
impression
of
the
attitudes
taken
by
important
political
and
industrial
elites
in
the
Nordic
coun-
tries
toward
the
Nordek
plan.
A
central
part
of
our
analysis
will
be
to
compare
these
two
types
of
elites.
Our
purpose
is
furthermore
to
trace
differences
in
attitude
between
council
representa-
tives
and
newspapers
of
different
national
backgrounds,
and
to
investigate
whether
or
not
party
political
attitudes
are
con-
sistent
on
an
inter-Nordic
level.
Thus
our
analysis
deals
with
comparisons
on
three
levels:
1.
We
will
compare
prevalent
attitudes
among
the
council
elite
and
the
press
elite;
2.
The
two
elites
will
be
split
up
national-
ly
in
order to
trace
different
national
attitudes;
3.
We
will
also
undertake
a
party
split-
up
of
the
elites
to
establish
eventual
common
ideological-political
attitudes
on
an
inter-Nordic
basis.
By
establishing
the
premises
on
which
the
different
national
and
political
groups
base
their
positions
regarding
Nordek’s
relationship
to
the
EC,
we
hope
to
clarify
the
extent
to
which
attitudes
are
condi-
tioned
by
national
background
and
by
political
affiliation.
In
the
following,
we
will
first
comment
briefly
on
the
choice
of
material
and
the
methods
employed
in
our
analysis.
This
will
be
followed
by
a
brief
elucidation
of
the
influence
of
EC-relations
on
the
Nordek
debate
generally.’
However,
the
main
substance
of
the
analysis
concerns
the
debate
about
the
relationship
between
Nordek
and
the
European
Communities,
and
whether
or
not
the
premises
on
which
argumentation
was
based
reveal
national
and/or
party
political
goals
concerning
the
relationship
between
Nordek
and
the
EC.
II.
METHODOLOGICAL
NOTE
The
material
on
which
this
analysis
is
based
is
the
.protocol
from
the
Nordic
Council’s
18th
session,
1970,
as
well
as
editorials
appearing
in
the
Nordic
press
during
a
period
including
this
session,
from
7
January
until
7
March
1970.
The
press
material
was
collected
from
the
Nordic
Council’s
Swedish
secretariat,
Stockhol M’2
Our
investigation
includes
all
argu-
ments
put
forth
in
the
two
debates
con-
cerning
the
relationship
between
Nordek
and
the
EC.
Each
argument
is
treated
as
a
unit
of
analysis;
they
are
the
coding
units
in
a
quantitative
content
analysis.3
In
those
cases
where
the
same
argument
was
repeated
in
the
following
sentence,
the
argument
was
coded
anew.
Our
method
allows
the
possibility
of
a
sentence
con-
taining
more
than
one
argument.
By
making
use
of
a
quantitative
approach4
to
the
Nordek
complex
of
problems,
we
hope
in
a
fruitful
way
to
supplement
the
more
qualitative
investigations
which
have
already
been
made
in
this
field.5
’
A
peculiarity
in
connection
with
the
Nordic
Council
debate
is
that
all
the
council
representatives
in
the
final
vote
actually
supported
the
ratification
of
the
Nordek
plan.
In deference to
this
vote,
we
did
not
find
it
satisfactory
to
split
up
the
material
on
the
basis
of
the
dichotomy
pro et
contra.
Instead
we
chose
to
measure
variances
in
argumentation
by
identifying
reservations
and
more
’pure’
pro
argu-
ments
respectively.
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