Jacob Christensen

This really seems to be the big something something Beijing Olympics Boycott posting day.

Henry Farrell wonders if there isn’t a difference between 2008 and earlier boycotts:

As best I understand it (I am open to corrections if wrong), in the past, Olympics politics have concerned inter-state rivalry, and have been driven by decisions on the part of traditional political elites. … The dynamic driving the Beijing Olympics seems to me to be rather different; what we are seeing is that the politics of boycott is being driven by mass-publics, and most recently by protestors, rather than by political leaders.

Actually, things are a bit more complicated, as much of the discussion this time is about a political rather than an athletic boycott of the Beijing games.

One interesting point in the Danish discussion is that the political faultlines are non-obvious: That the – traditionally anti-Communist and pro-Taiwan – Danish People’s Party favours a boycott is not that surprising, but that the Liberals are against a boycott while the Conservatives are more or less in favour may be a bit surprising. The business community – which traditionally supports the Conservatives – would not be happy about a boycott. Add the intricate question about Crown Prince Frederik’s maybe-candidacy for the IOC and things get really complicated.

For professional opinions from the U.S., here are some links from Farrell’s post: Steve Clemons says “no!” while Daniel Drezner says “why not?”

Update: John Sides has this collection of polls about public attitudes towards a boycott of the 2008 Olympics. One thing I can’t see – and I’ve tried to find the original Danish Gallup poll – is whether the Danish poll was about the opening ceremony or the entire games.

Oh, this gets funnier and funnier by the minute. Anders Fogh Rasmussen reacts to Brian Mikkelsen’s threat of boycotting the opening ceremony of the somewhere somewhere Olympics (which he wasn’t scheduled to attend in the first place) with the killer comment:

I hadn’t heard that he was going to China.

At one point I ought to write something serious about this strange issue, but this will have to do for now.

• Kulturministeriet: Sprog til tiden
  (tags: denmark language publicpolicy university education)

To be perfectly honest, I care very little about the 2008 Olympics in Somewhere Somewhere, but after following the wheelings and dealings of Danish politicians in the question over a potential political boycott of the opening ceremony, it is truly amazing to learn that the Danish Minister for Culture Brian Mikkelsen has announced that he might boycott an event he wasn’t going to attend in the first place.

Oh, and the Olympic Flame relay was originally dreamt up by the Nazis.

To appreciate this, it probably helps if you’ve been to grad school.

No Dissertation from ticoneva on Vimeo.

H/T: Chris Blattman via Brad deLong.

Gissur Erlingson notes the absence of research about political parties at the county level.

Anybody…? Anybody…? Bueller…?

No?

This is in fact very strange. As Erlingson points out, Swedish voters give high priority to health care issues at elections but neither voters, media or political scientists seem to give much attention to the regional level. In a Nordic perspective, the Norwegian government shifted responsibility for hospitals from the regional to the state level while the recent Danish local government reform all but killed the regional level. Maybe this was only possible because the regional level was seen as an administrative rather than a political level in the political system?

An earlier post pointing to Erlingson’s colleague Peter Santesson-Wilson.