Nordic Elites in Comparative Perspective • 143

Nordic Elites in Comparative Perspective

Ilkka Ruostetsaari Department of Political Science, University of Turku, Finland ilkka.ruostetsaari@utu.fi

Abstract The article compares the Nordic, i.e., Danish, Finnish, Nor- wegian and Swedish, elite structures based on power studies which were completed in these countries in the 2000s. Despite differences in data collection methods, all of these studies employ the positional approach, and the composition of national elites is defined identically. Moreover, the four Nordic countries are associated with largely common history and political culture. The Nordic elites will be compared on the grounds of three dimensions, i.e. openness of recruitment into the elites, interac- tion between various elite groups, and interaction between the elites and the people. We will ask in what way the Nordic elite structures have changed as far as these dimensions are concerned and how many elites exist in the Nordic countries, i.e., one power elite or several mutually competitive elites.

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this article is to compare Nordic, i.e., Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish, elite structures based on two premises. Firstly, Nordic countries are associated with very similar political cultures, which can be accounted for by common historical roots; Norway was a part of Denmark before her independence, and Finland was a part of Sweden before being annexed to Russia. These four countries, together with the fifth Nordic country, Iceland, have cooperated closely in the Nordic Council which was established in 1952. Furthermore, linguistically, the Nordic countries are also very close to each other. The languages spoken in Denmark, Norway and Sweden are classified as Scandinavian languages. Finnish is not a Scandinavian language but Swedish is the second offi cial language in Finland. Secondly, a comparative analysis of elite structures can be

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carried out because national power studies have been completed recently in all Nordic countries. The Danish Parliament decided in 1997 to launch a power study (Munk Christiansen et al. 2001) which was inspired somewhat by the Norwegian power studies in the 1970s (NOU 1982:3) and the Swedish studies in the 1980s. The research project was completed in 2003. In 1998, Norway launched a new power study, which has progressed parallel to the Danish study (Gulbrandsen et al. 2002). It finished its work in 2003. The Swedish power studies were completed in 1990, 2000 and 2006 (SOU 1990:44, 2000:1; Göransson 2006a). The first mentioned Swedish research project also inspired the Finnish elite studies which were completed in 1992 and 2003 (Ruostetsaari 1993, 2003, 2006). However, despite the fact that these elite studies were carried out by one researcher, there has so far not been an organised national power study in Finland. The Academy of Finland launched, in 2005, a research program, “Power in Finland”, which began at the beginning of 2007 and will last for four years. Nordic elite studies can be compared because their theoretical approaches are very similar. All studies are based on the positional approach. Further- more, national elites are divided into sub-groups almost identically. Elite groups of politics, public administration, business, organisations, media, science and culture can be found in each of the studies. There are, however, significant differences between the Nordic power studies as far as data collection methods are concerned. The Finnish and Swedish studies are based on postal surveys; the Norwegian study is based on personal interviews; while the Danish study utilises exclusively register data. The sizes of elites cannot be deduced from elite theory but constitute an empirical question depending on the focus of the respective study. How- ever, as to the size of elites, it would appear that the bigger the country, the bigger the elite (Burton and Higley 2001:189). The number of elite members has varied from about 7,500 in the United States (Dye 1983) to 1,000–2,000 in the Nordic countries. The number of elite positions was 1,771 in 1999 in the Danish study (605 in 1932; 753 in 1963), 1,115 and 1,285 in the Finnish studies carried out in 1991 and 2001, 2,072 in the Norwegian study of 2000, and 2,546 (1990) and 3,343 (2001) in the Swed- ish studies (Gulbrandsen et al. 2002; Ruostetsaari 1993, 2004, 2006; SOU 1990: 44; Munk Christiansen et al. 2001; Göransson 2006a). Differences between the Nordic elite studies not only concern data col- lection methods but also indicators and variables employed for analysing the characteristics of national elites. Thus, we are not able to analyse sys- tematically details on national elites based on hypotheses but rather must compare elite structures more comprehensively based on the conclusions

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