Swedish Research in Political Science
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SWEDISH RESEARCH IN POLITICAL SCIENCE Swedish Research in Political Science Evaluators: Göran Hydén Ellen Immergut Arild Underdal Historical Chapter: Olof Ruin The Swedish University System: Bo Öhngren 1 SWEDISH RESEARCH IN POLITICAL SCIENCE Swedish Research in Political Science Vetenskapsrådet (The Swedish Research Council) 103 78 Stockholm © The Swedish Research Council and the authors ISBN 91-7307-006-8 Cover: ORD&FORM AB, Uppsala 2002 Production: ORD&FORM AB, Uppsala 2002 2 SWEDISH RESEARCH IN POLITICAL SCIENCE Preface Scientifi c results are continously scrutinised in the research community. Usually the reviews concern individual scholars and research projects. During the last two decades, however, there has been a growing concern in Sweden, both within and outside the university system, to establish a more comprehensive overview of the state of the art of Swedish research in an international perspective. The main task of the Swedish Research Council (VR), established in January 2000, is to stimulate basic research within its broad fi eld of responsibility. How- ever, according its charter, the Council is also to evaluate research and to do so on a yearly basis when reviewing research applications. In the fi eld of humani- ties and social sciences, rather extensive evaluations of whole academic disci- plines have been undertaken since 1985. This work now continues within the new organisation, and is monitored by the Expert Council for Humanities and Social Sciences. The disciplines evaluated so far include sociology, history, psy- chology, economics, linguistics, education, literature, human geography and Nordic languages. According to the Council the evaluators should be distin- guished scholars chosen from research communities outside of Sweden. The Swedish Research Council is very pleased to have been able to recruit a very prominent group of scholars as evaluators of political science: Professors Göran Hydén, University of Florida, Ellen Immergut, University of Konstanz and Arild Underdal, University of Oslo. Professor emeritus Olof Ruin has been recruited to write the historical chapter and act as a liaison to the research com- munity. Co-ordinator of the evaluation has been Dr Bo Öhngren at the Coun- cil. As the Secretary General of the Expert Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, I would like on behalf of the Council to thank them all for their devoted work. A vital part of the evaluation activities is the site visits. They can be of great importance for the evaluators as well as for the evaluated researchers. In this case the site visits proved to be very instructive and stimulating, partly because of the inspiring discussions provided by the evaluators, partly because of the important ground work done by the contact persons at each department. I would like to convey warm thanks to these contact persons for their effort to give the evalua- tion a good start. Bengt Hansson 3 SWEDISH RESEARCH IN POLITICAL SCIENCE Contents Members of the Evaluation Committee ........................................ 8 Introduction .................................................................................. 11 Introduction, Göran Hydén, Ellen Immergut and Arild Underdal .......................................................................... 13 The study of politics .......................................................................... 13 The study of politics in Sweden .......................................................... 14 Organization of the evaluation ........................................................... 16 Criteria of evaluation ......................................................................... 19 Organization of the report ................................................................. 22 Background .................................................................................... 25 The development of Swedish political science, Olof Ruin ..... 27 The quantitative development ............................................................ 28 The direction and content of research ................................................ 34 The relations with the surrounding society ......................................... 40 The relations with the outside world ................................................. 42 Bibliography ...................................................................................... 44 Political Science in the context of the Swedish university system, Bo Öhngren ..................................................... 45 Introduction ...................................................................................... 45 Swedish academic positions ................................................................ 45 Professor ........................................................................................ 45 Universitetslektor (lecturer) ................................................................ 46 Docent (assistant professor) ................................................................ 47 Forskarassistent (post doctoral research fellow) ................................... 47 Adjunkt (teacher) ............................................................................... 48 Research positions at the Research Councils ....................................... 48 Positions at Swedish political science departments .............................. 49 Graduate training ............................................................................... 50 Funding of research and training ........................................................ 52 Evaluation ....................................................................................... 53 Departments and groups ............................................................... 55 4 SWEDISH RESEARCH IN POLITICAL SCIENCE Göteborg University ........................................................................... 55 Lund University ................................................................................. 60 Stockholm University ......................................................................... 65 Umeå University ................................................................................ 71 Uppsala University ............................................................................. 77 Linköping University ......................................................................... 81 Karlstad University ............................................................................. 82 Växjö University ................................................................................ 85 Örebro University .............................................................................. 88 Political science outside established universities .................................. 92 Disciplinary fi elds ............................................................................. 98 Swedish Politics .................................................................................. 98 Policy and Administration .................................................................. 103 Comparative Politics .......................................................................... 109 International Relations ....................................................................... 115 Political Theory .................................................................................. 121 European Politics ............................................................................... 125 Gender and Politics ............................................................................ 127 Overall evaluation: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats ........................................................................................ 135 General overview ................................................................................ 135 Fields of research ................................................................................ 140 Comparative evaluation of departments ............................................. 143 Some specifi c issues for Swedish political science at large .................... 147 Summary of recommendations .................................................... 162 Institutions ........................................................................................ 162 Fields of research ................................................................................ 165 The Swedish political science community at large .............................. 168 Appendix 1: Bibliometrical indicators ......................... 173 Appendix 2: References ........................................................ 175 Göteborg University ........................................................................... 175 Lund University ................................................................................. 179 Stockholm University ......................................................................... 183 Umeå University ................................................................................ 188 5 SWEDISH RESEARCH IN POLITICAL SCIENCE Uppsala University ............................................................................. 191 Karlstad University ............................................................................. 196 Växjö University ................................................................................ 197 Örebro University .............................................................................. 198 Figures and Tables Figures Figure 1 Number of