Nordiska förbundet för statskunskap som komparativistisk arena och aktör

Författare

• Dag Anckar

Abstract

The Nordic Political Science Association (NOPSA) was created in 1975. NOPSA is a federation, the five Nordic national political science associations being members of that federation. The Association has, according to its constitution, four major tasks. The first is to issue joint Nordic publications, the second is to organize Nordic congresses at regular intervals, the third is to initiate and create Nordic research groups, the fourth, finally, is the coordination of Nordic representation in international scientific organizations. One central aim of NOPSA has been the promotion of comparative research on political life in the Nordic countries. However, NOPSA has not been able to accomplish results that fully answer to this intention. Whereas the journal of the Association, Scandinavian Political Studies, has performed rather well, devoting one fifth or even more of its volume to comparative studies, other arenas have remained difficult of access. The number of workshops with comparative orientations at the Nordic congresses has been low, indicating, on the one hand, no keen interest on the part of the Nordic political science communities to propose the creation of such workshops, and, on the other hand, a neglect of the Association to compensate for the omissions. The achievements of the comparative research groups that have been set up by the Association are mingled. Quite a few must be classified as failures in the sense that they have not been able to publish books, journal issues or a similar scientific documentation. The failure of the Association to act more forcefully is due partly to financial and partly to organizational reasons.