Three Nordic Power Investigations on the Repercussions of the European Union on Sovereignty and Democracy

Abstract

Public inquiries into the state of democracy and power were undertaken in three Scandinavian states—Norway, Denmark and Sweden—on the threshold of the twenty-first century. The parliamentary directives identified globalization and, above all, the effects of European integration as the main challenges to popular rule in these three small democracies. The Scandinavian power investigations arrived at different conclusions about the impact of European integration on national sovereignty and on the distribution of power in the respective societies, and each country saw their problem differently. The Swedish report acknowledged minor difficulty with regard to the distribution of power; the Norwegian investigation concluded on a bleak note; whereas the Danish conclusion was affirmative and was self-conscious of being a European role model. The article attributes national differences to different normative conceptions of sovereignty and to the historical and institutional character of the three states' relationship with the EU.

Keywords::

• EU
• power
• europeanization
• Scandinavia

Notes

¹ The Danish and the Norwegian inquiries worked within the then established tradition of ‘power investigations’; both produced final reports on ‘Power and Democracy’. The Norwegian investigation was even formally titled ‘Power and Democracy Investigation’. The name of the Swedish inquiry was ‘Democracy Investigation’; it was not framed as a power investigation and remained ultimately in the hands of politicians. However, as it existed parallel with the other investigations for some years and as it worked on related topics, it has frequently been compared to the other two investigations. For the purpose of this article, it is therefore treated as a power investigation.

² Two of the five members of the Norwegian investigation were present in this volume with dissenting statements, one of which advocated a more positive view of the challenges of Europeanization and globalization. The three representatives of the majority line published, in addition to the official report, a more comprehensive unofficial synopsis (Østerud, Engelstad, and Selle 2003). This article refers to both the official and the unofficial final reports when referring to the conclusions of the Norwegian power investigation.