Jacob Christensen

Just a short note about this: Last week some geniuses at Ritzaus Bureau had the idea to run a poll about Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s popularity. The thing is, that Ritzau asked if voters felt that Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s hypothetical resignation should be the reason to call an early election. 6 out of 10 of those asked said so.

This raises an interesting problem: Neither journalists, nor voters seem to be aware of the fact that Denmark is a parliamentary democracy. This means that voters elect the legislature, but not the executive, while the executive depends on the confidence of the legislature. Yes, it’s complicated but the point is that the electorate does not choose the executive.

So, where did we get to this? Some quick thoughts:

• Those asked, answered a different question. Instead of answering the question “should the executive be directly elected?”, they answered the question “do I prefer a Liberal or a Social-Democratic Prime Minister right now?”
• Journalists asked the wrong question: Instead of asking “do you prefer a Liberal or a Social-Democratic Prime Minister right now?”, they asked “should the executive be directly elected?”
• Neither part can tell the difference between a specific question about persons and a general question about constitutions.
• Journalists cannot conceive of politics in anything but personal terms. Policies and institutions are considered irrelevant.
• Journalists think the Danish political system works like the US political system where the executive is elected indirectly by the electorate.

Anyway: If we want to take the premise of the poll seriously, then we must assume that there are very strict limits on what parliament and government can do during an electoral term and that there are some kind of general criteria for a recall of a parliament. And here things will get really complicated.

Hanna Pitkin, anyone?

As the FAZ notes:

[Die schwedische Krona] durchbrach ihren langjährigen Aufwärtstrend gegen den Dollar und wertete inzwischen 35 Prozent gegen den Dollar ab. Inzwischen sind 9,05 Kronen nötig, um einen Dollar erwerben zu können. Noch im April des vergangenen Jahres waren dafür gerade einmal 5,85 Kronen nötig gewesen.

[...]

Gegen den Euro ist der Kurs in den vergangenen Monaten von 9,28 auf zuletzt 11,47 Kronen je Euro gestiegen.

According to the Danish Central Bank, the SEK – DKK exchange rate today is 65,06 DKK – 100 SEK. I’m just noting this because I still have stocks and bonds locked in Swedish pesetas, so besides the crash on the stock exchanges, my savings are also taking a hit due to the massive effective devaluation of the Krona. The good news is that a) I – unlike a lot of Danes – have received my wages for February, and b) my Danish bank account is 4000 DKK up compared with last month (yes, I know that I should allow for the 28 days of February compared with 3 days in January), even though the HR office forgot that I’m working 100% and not 80%.

Now, which one to spend a quiet evening with?

• Dich, Jørgen S, 1939: Arbejdsløshedsproblemet i Danmark 1930-1938 : Betænkning afgivet af Socialministeriets statsvidenskabelige Konsulent. Copenhagen: Socialministeriet.
• Enquist, Per Olov, 2008: Ett annat liv. Stockholm: Norstedts
• Rauchway, Eric, 2008: The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

They didn’t even get to drink coffee? That must surely be a new Danish record in the speedy break-down of a round of negotiations. The odds for a narrow agreement between the government and the Danish People’s Party on some kind of tax reform suddenly look very, very low.

Update: And the Social Liberals were out of the process almost as fast as the Social Democrats and the Socialists. And then they try to make us believe that the process wasn’t staged by the government and DF.

Henrik Oscarsson reminds us that the political parties still are at the centre of the political process but also that they are strangely underresearched in Swedish political science. Things may not be just as bad on this side of Øresund. Maybe the Swedes ought to gang up with CVAP in Copenhagen and others?

I have a draft about Liberal parties hiding somewhere on my harddisk. It would need some work to become a proper programme, but the Nordic liberals – both in their leftist, rightist and agrarian appearances – would merit a study.

I never thought it would happen, but here is one final posting about Umeå: Peter Santesson-Wilson remembers his happy childhood in the north.

The Ph.D. Dance; the entire field.

Also: The Gonzo Scientist.

Via BoingBoing.

Perhaps I ought to update the “Books and research” tag to “Books, dance and research”?

I have used a feature on delicious.com which automatically posted recent links on the blog. As I’ve been posting less lately (hm – five posts or something in the last 24 hours…), there have been many links and fewer “real” posts, so to avoid letting the linking getting the better of the blog, I have decided to kill the automatic posting and replace it with a delicious-badge in the sidebar.

In case anybody wonders how I use delicious and sharing in Google Reader, the answer is that posts from rss-feeds usually end up shared on Google while one-off sites usually end up on delicious. In both cases there are unusual exceptions!

So the old rumour mill is working overtime – helped by the Danish defence minister, no less – and an order for ten bespoke suits has been placed.

Well, just to hedge my bets, I’ve set up a Rasmussen-Rasmussen section on the Political Reviews page. If you’re looking for more gossip, I will have to disappoint you. If you are more into historical parallels (and lack thereof), the links are for your entertainment.

Update: Please pardon my French. It’s attendant, not attendent. And I got a “13″ in my high school exams…

I must admit that I, too, was a bit stunned to read this headline in Die Zeit. And for the record, this Kim Larsen is a woman. I wonder how many copies the book would sell in Denmark.

PS: They say (as in: they say) that Kim Larsen is often seen shopping in SuperBrugsen on Vestergade here in Odense. But I have never seen him there. Perhaps he has disappeared as well?