PREFACE

The Sixth World Congress of the International Political Science Association held in 1964 dealt with six scientific topics in its traditionally arranged sessions of papers and discussions. In addition, a substantial part of the formal program was now devoted to six so-called specialist meetings of invited participants, and the Association's plans seem to indicate that such smaller meetings will gain increased prominence in future world congresses.

There also was a third type of scholarly gathering in Geneva, but held outside the official program and unnoticed by others. This was a regional international meeting. Participants at the Congress from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden spent some hours concentrating on a proposal, initiated by the Norwegians and further drafted by the Finns, to publish jointly an English language periodical or yearbook. Of course political scientists in these countries have had quite adequate access to a variety of local publications; two of the countries also have political science quarterlies, Sweden the Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift since 1898 and Finland the Politiikka since 1959 (as a yearbook since 1941). It is also true that foreign journals and symposia often print articles written by Scandinavians. But neither kind of forum could be developed to satisfy what then was felt to be the current need. The discussions and unanimous decisions at that meeting, soon also accepted by the boards of the national political science associations and financially supported by public authorities in each country, proved the potential usefulness of the newly born Scandinavian Political Studies.

The birth of this particular publication fits naturally into at least three recent developments. First of all, since the Second World War customary cooperation among Europe's Northern coutries has evolved into many new forms in various walks of life. For example, the Nordic Cultural Commission was founded in 1947 and the Nordic Council began to function in 1953. The latter body meets

annually for negotiations among members of the Parliaments and governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. At each of these sessions numerous recommendations have been formulated, which then have resulted in practical measures by the five governments. The achievements in the area of Nordic cooperation include, among others, free inter-Scandinavian travel without passports since 1952 and an unrestricted labor market supplemented by the 1955 convention on mutual social security benefits; they also include economic cooperation, joint research and educational institutes, such as the NORDITA institute for theoretical physics in Denmark, and the comprehensive 1962 convention on governmental cooperation in the drafting of new legislation. Lively informal contacts and interchange have often developed into formal measures and formal and informal activities have supported each other and multiplied the significance of these interchanges.

Social scientists have not remained outside this general trend towards increased Scandinavian cooperation. Thus the second relevant line of development has been the appearance of many new regional publications. Those political scientists who specialize in international politics started the joint semi-annual Cooperation and Conflict a year ago, in 1965. Numerous periodicals in the native languages include, among others, the Nordisk administrativt tidskrift since 1919; Nordisk tidsskrift for international ret — Acta scandinavica juris gentium (1930-, now largely in English); Nordisk Psykologi since 1949, and Nordisk domssamling since 1959; also Informasjon fra Det Nordiske Sommeruniversitet (1964-) and the Nordisk Forum, due to appear in six issues during its first year in 1966. English-language periodicals in related fields include the Skandinavisk aktuarietidskrift (1918-), the Scandinavian Economic History Review (1953-), the Acta Sociologica (1957-), and the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology (1960-). In certain fields the preference has been to print yearbooks in English, exemplified by the Scandinavian Studies in Law (1957-, vol. IX in 1965) and Scandinavian Studies in Criminology (vol. I in 1965). Although Scandinavian Political Studies has not been directly inspired by any of the publications mentioned above, it is good to remember that this yearbook might be considered as just another outcome of the general tendency to create new social science publications, to base them on Scandinavian cooperation and also to publish them in English in order to reach wider audiences. In the meantime, the same tendency has created such comparative works as Freedom and Welfare: Social Patterns in the Northern Countries of Europe, edited by George R. Nelson (1953); Democratic efficace by Gunnar Heckscher (1957); Scandinavian Democracy, edited by J. A. Lauwerys (1958); and Government and Politics in the Nordic Countries by Nils Andrén (1964).

The third significant development is quite apparent in the four national reports on political research, which were written by members of our Editorial Board for this volume about their respective countries. This is the marked increase over the recent decade in the coverage, the sophistication, and the self-confidence of Scandinavian political science. Academic teaching positions illustrate one side of

this progress. Although there had been valuable political research in Norway, the first teaching position at the University of Oslo was established as late as 1957 and the first full professor in this field was appointed in 1965. At the Danish University of Aarhus two professors of political science were appointed in 1959. The University of Helsinki got its first chair of political science in 1921, but quite recent years have witnessed the establishment of this subject at a number of new Finnish universities. A marked expansion of academic political science has also been witnessed over the last few years in Sweden: the Nordic country which established a chair of "Rhetorics and Politics" at Uppsala as early as 1622.

Thus the small regional meeting in Geneva was a consistent result of three different but simultaneous developments. And it was not curious that such a meeting took place outside Scandinavia. Intra-Scandinavian cooperation had not become institutionalized within the scope of political science. Even individual scholars had exerted relatively little influence on their Nordic colleagues. Each country had been inspired to some extent by her own tradition and intuition, and to a large extent by general international trends. Not only were the Nordics lacking a distinct regional forum for scholarly exchanges on research in the field of politics, but there was also a real possibility of isolation from the broader networks of international scholarly communication. The need could not be met through a publication in the Scandinavian languages, whereas a joint yearbook in English was a natural solution to this shared problem. Very soon it also proved that the time is ripe for new forms of international cooperation on this regional level. For example, preparations for this volume inspired the four associations to arrange regular Scandinavian political science conferences, the first one to be held in Oslo in June, 1966.

Each national political science association elected its representative to the Editorial Board of Scandinavian Political Studies in January, 1965. I hope it is proper to tell our readers in this connection that the shared experience and devotion of the Board members were indispensable in getting the book realized. The other essential precondition for this publication was the financial support of Statens råd för samhällsforskning (Social Science Research Council) in Sweden, Undervisningsministeriet (Ministry of Education) and the Rask-Ørsted Foundation in Denmark, Opetusministeriö (Ministry of Education) in Finland, and Norges almenvitenskapelige forskningsråd (Norwegian Research Council) in Norway. The associations wish to express their sincere gratitude for the valuable grants.

Our intention is to make this volume the beginning of a regular annual publication. Every year there will be a review section containing some account of political developments, a report on political research in the four countries, and an annual bibliography. The main section of the publication will present scientific papers by Scandinavian authors or those dealing with politics in the Scandinavian countries. We hope for criticism and further elaboration of the papers by our readers; any such reaction will be our best reward for preparing the yearbook.

Let us also rush to apologize for our most immediately perceivable shortcoming, the absence of Iceland. This has been caused by practical difficulties, not by any choice of ours. We hope to solve the problem of including Iceland in the future and to speak then on behalf of political scientists in all five rather than four Northern countries of Europe.

Tampere, Finland

April, 1966