The phenomenon of the strong position of labour parties in Norway, Sweden and Denmark

Summary: My thesis deals with the unique phenomenon of the strong position of the labour parties in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. These parties have held a position of a dominant party in the Scandinavian party systems for several decades from the late 1930s till the 1970s which is a remarkable achievement among the Western European political parties. The phenomenon of the strong position of labour parties in Norway, Sweden and Denmark The key to the phenomenal success of the Norwegian Labor Party, the Swedish Social Democrats and the Danish Social Democrats have been particularly high party identification of voters. The success of the welfare state also lies in the widespread feeling that everyone benefits from this state policy not only the poor. These party systems had been due to its stable and unchanging character described as "frozen party systems". The frozen part of the party systems in that period represented an average of about 85% of the votes in Norway and Denmark. In the case of Sweden the figure was even higher - about 94% of all votes. In the case of Norway and Sweden, the Social Democrats as predominant party held even up to 30% more seats than the second strongest political party. In such an environment it is almost impossible for a newly established political group to enter the party system...