An Election with Paradoxes : Public Opinion and the Danish General Election of 2007

by Jørgen Goul Andersen, Professor i politisk sociologi, Aalborg Universitet, Leder af Centre for Comparative, Welfare Studies (CCWS) og af valgundersøgelsen 2007

Considering the changes in voter attitudes before the 2007 election, the absence of an electoral recovery of the parties supporting a Social Democratic government is highly remarkable. The government was not awarded for its quality reform of the public sector – nor for its tax relief. Voters were increasingly favourable towards the welfare state and increasingly critical of the government’s performance in the field of welfare. Besides, voters were less inclined than previously to support a tough immigration policy. The government had strengthened its ‘ownership’ of the economy, but the economy was of low saliency in the 2007 election. This makes it surprising that the parties supporting a Social Democratic government did not make any gains in their electoral support.

Political commentators in the Danish national election of 2007

by Peter Bro, associate professor, Center for Journalism, University of Southern Denmark & Anker Brink Lund, professor, Center for Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School

Political commentators not only helped explain political actions and attitudes during the national election in Denmark in 2007, but also themselves became the center of attention for the media. This article describes the roles commentators played as news sources during the national election, and discusses the importance of this much-debated profession through a theoretical framework of sourcing practices, where various people and professions can be employed as markers, translators or actors in the news media. These roles are then individually and collectively connected to a number of potential media effects – such as spinning, framing and priming – in an attempt to clarify the actual importance of the political commentators. Finally, the practical and principal potentials and problems that are associated with the popularisation of political commentators in a Danish context are discussed.

Media Coverage , Political Cynicism and Mistrust

by Christian Albrekt Larsen, associate professor, Department of Economics, Politics and Public Administration, Aalborg University

The article analyses the connection between new conditions for the political communication and political cynicism. By means of the Danish national election study 2007 it is shown that exposure to TV-news was connected to the perception that two major shift among the two leading Danish parties were a matter of pure strategy. The effect is strongest among groups with moderate interest in politics. It is also shown that exposure to newspapers did not have the same effect. Finally the article finds a connection between perception of politics as pure strategy and mistrust in political leaders. The article ends with a discussion about the connection between political cynicism and efficacy. It is argued that the simplification of politics caused by TV-news could generate the feeling that politics is simple and easy to understand.

Are voters influenced by their political use of the internet ?

by Jens Hoff, professor, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen

This article investigates whether political use of the internet affects users politically. Using a combination of log and survey data from a study of internet use during the Danish 2007 parliamentary election, and inspired by theories on agenda setting and on the active/interactive user, three hypotheses are tested: 1) that those who use the internet most intensively politically are also the most politically affected, 2) that ‘net activists’ (web 2.0 users) are affected more by their political internet use than ‘information seekers’ (web 1.0 users), and 3) that those who are somewhat or little interested in politics are those most affected by their political internet use. All three hypotheses are by and large verified. Furthermore it is demonstrated that the single most important factor in explaining variation in whether users are affected politically or not by their use of political features of the internet is whether they are active political net users or not. While this conclusion seems trivial it demonstrates that the internet works very much like other media: political use of the media has political effects. What is less trivial, however, is that it is also demonstrated that certain types of uses have more profound political effects than others.

The Danish General Election of 2007 in Cyberspace

by Janus Breck, Economic Council of the Labour Movement (AE), co-founder of consulting company ’Politbureauet’ & Pelle Pape, officer in the Danish Rigsrevision, co-founder of consulting company ’Politbureauet’

This article examines the web strategies of the Danish political parties in the 2007 general election, focusing on their use of audiovisual information- and communication technology (ICT). The article shows how Danish parties enhanced their efforts on the internet in the 2007 election campaign, e.g. by using audio-visual elements. In addition, it argues that Danish parties in their audiovisual communication predominantly used traditional formats and genres known from TV, advertising and presentation movies. Accordingly, the parties’ audiovisual communication has primarily served as on-line distributed, unidirectional communication similar to traditional mass communication, but circumventing the traditional media. Finally, the article proposes three ideal types for political parties’ audiovisual web strategies. The ideal types serve the purpose of structuring the understanding and the discussion of political parties’ use of ICT and the internet in political campaign communication.

The Future of Danish Municipalities – Local Offices of the Central Government?

by Anders Asboe Kristensen, cand.scient.pol. & Torben Beck Jørgensen, professor, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen

Based on a survey among local top public management officials, the article focuses on how the reform of the Danish municipalities affects the values and the modes of governance in the local administrations. The empirical analysis shows that especially professional values and a professional form of governance are expected to become more important because the reform creates new opportunities for professional specialization as the size of the administration and areas of new responsibilities increase. At the same time national politicians, ministries and agencies are expected to influence the local administration much more strongly. In addition, the influence of local politicians as well as engagement and participation in local politics on the part of citizens are expected to decrease. Top public managers also expect that centrally defined standards and procedures will increase. This will probably ensure a certain professional standard but will also make the municipalities more identical and pose a potential threat to local autonomy. The article concludes that the local Danish authorities are increasingly expected to become professionally oriented state agencies instead of strong local democracies or market-based companies.