42 research outputs found
Largely the Same Policy, But Largely Different Ideas: The Ideational Underpinnings of the Norwegian and Swedish Bans on the Purchase of Sexual Services
Norway and Sweden have both criminalized the purchase of sexual services. Some scholars attribute the sex purchase ban in Norway to the successful lobbying of feminist activists. Examining the prostitution policy reform processes in both countries, this article argues that Norway’s turn to criminalization responded to public outrage over the sudden arrival of Nigerian prostitutes in downtown Oslo, construing the problem of prostitution as cross-border trafficking. By contrast, the earlier sex purchase ban in Sweden resulted chiefly from policy entrepreneurs successfully deploying gender equality ideas, in conjunction with causal stories about the abuse suffered by female prostitutes
Labor Migration and Migration Policy
Across Europe, the prospect of a rapidly shrinking workforce has put increased labor migration back on the political agenda. However, for many on the left, concerns exist that less restrictive labor migration policies threaten core features of the social democratic project. This is perhaps clearest in Sweden, which in late 2008 adopted a liberal approach to third-country national labor migration, allowing employers to hire freely from outside the European Union. Defending the Swedish Model explores the debate leading up to this reform, focusing on the preferences of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) and the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO). While generally positive to the economic potential of increased labor migration, these allies remained highly skeptical towards calls from employers and bourgeois parties for liberalization.
Bucken-Knapp argues that the SAP and LO develop their labor migration policy preferences on the basis of whether specific reform alternatives are perceived as being consistent with, or as undermining, the Swedish model. In the case of third-country nationals, both allies considered liberalization a threat to full employment aims, instead seeking to preserve an influential role for the state labor market board and organized labor. Bucken-Knapp also focuses on the Swedish labor migration debate prior to the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, showing how SAP concerns over potential abuse of the universal welfare state led to its support for transitional arrangements. Defending the Swedish Model illuminates the challenges faced by social democrats and trade unions when considering the need for increased labor migration
Reviewing the impact of the Confederation Bridge
Islands are the challenging targets of a global pursuit
in the closing of gaps, their distinct geography so far
having seemingly eluded and mocked both human
ingenuity and terra firma. This article seeks to
deconstruct the concept of the bridge as more than
just a value-free symbol of inexorable technological
progress, and uses islands as the reference point to
flesh out such an argument. Bridges impact on the
subtle balance between the characteristic
âlocalâglobalâ nature of an island identity; such an
impact is multi-faceted, complex and case-specific.
These ideas are applied to the specific case of the
Confederation Bridge, the 14-km structure linking
Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick, and which
celebrated its tenth anniversary in June 2007.peer-reviewe
The discrepancy in PAMINA between the European image of a cross-border region and cross-border behaviour
Political Parties and 'the Immigration Issue':Issue Ownership in Swedish Parliamentary Elections 1991-2010
Varieties of capitalism and labor migration policy
Faced with a declining workforce, why does the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) oppose employer proposals for increased labor migration from non-EU countries? This article explores whether perspectives on policymaking in the varieties of capitalism (VoC) literature can account for this puzzle. VoC scholars maintain that policymakers prefer reforms conforming to the national political economy, improving firm capacity and ensuring better economic performance. Employers are also thought to support policies incentivecompatible with the prevailing model of capitalism. My analysis shows that while the SAP backed labor migration policies compatible with the Swedish coordinated market economy, it did not do so for reasons of efficiency or economic performance. The SAP fears that liberal reform, preferred by employers, will damage the Swedish model, undermine active labor market policies and weaken unions. The case of Swedish labor migration policy underscores how economic reform reflects political conflict and not the desire to preserve equilibrium
Varieties of capitalism and labor migration policy
Faced with a declining workforce, why does the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) oppose employer proposals for increased labor migration from non-EU countries? This article explores whether perspectives on policymaking in the varieties of capitalism (VoC) literature can account for this puzzle. VoC scholars maintain that policymakers prefer reforms conforming to the national political economy, improving firm capacity and ensuring better economic performance. Employers are also thought to support policies incentivecompatible with the prevailing model of capitalism. My analysis shows that while the SAP backed labor migration policies compatible with the Swedish coordinated market economy, it did not do so for reasons of efficiency or economic performance. The SAP fears that liberal reform, preferred by employers, will damage the Swedish model, undermine active labor market policies and weaken unions. The case of Swedish labor migration policy underscores how economic reform reflects political conflict and not the desire to preserve equilibrium
Trouble in paradise? Europe in the 21st century
Trouble in Paradise? Europe in the 21st Century, Steven Philip Kramer and Irene Kyriakopoulos (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1996)Output Type: Book Revie