Morality Politics in Western Europe
Comparative Studies of Political Agendas Series Series editors Frank R. Baumgartner, Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. Laura Chaques, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Barcelona, and Research Fellow, Institut Barcelona d Estudis Internacionals, Spain Christoffer Green-Pedersen, Professor of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark Arco Timmermans, Research Director, Montesquieu Institute, The Hague, and Associate Professor of Comparative Public Policy, Institute of Public Administration, Leiden University, Netherlands Frédéric Varone, Professor of Political Science, University of Geneva, Switzerland The series publishes books on policy agenda-setting dynamics, broadly understood. This includes books dealing with the policy effects of agenda dynamics; the relationship between the political agenda, public opinion and the media agenda; and agenda dynamics in relation to particular issues. The series also covers comparative books and those dealing with single countries if these are placed in a comparative context. The texts can be either monographs or edited volumes. Comparative Studies of Political Agendas Series Series Standing Order ISBN 978 0 230 35977 2 (Hardback) 978 0 230 35978 9 (Paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBNs quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Morality Politics in Western Europe Parties, Agendas and Policy Choices Edited by Isabelle Engeli Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa, Canada Christoffer Green-Pedersen Professor, Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University, Denmark and Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Government, Aarhus University, Denmark
Editorial matter, selection, introduction and conclusion Isabelle Engeli, Christoffer Green-Pedersen and 2012 All remaining chapters respective authors 2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-30933-3 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-33924-2 DOI 10.1057/9781137016690 ISBN 978-1-137-01669-0 (ebook) This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents List of Tables and Figures Preface Notes on Contributors vii ix x 1 Introduction 1 Isabelle Engeli, Christoffer Green-Pedersen and 2 Theoretical Perspectives on Morality Issues 5 Isabelle Engeli, Christoffer Green-Pedersen and 3 How to Study the Two Worlds of Morality Politics 27 Isabelle Engeli, Christoffer Green-Pedersen and 4 Morality Issues in the Netherlands: Coalition Politics under Pressure 35 Arco Timmermans and Gerard Breeman 5 From Prohibition to Permissiveness: A Two-Wave Change on Morality Issues in Spain 62 Laura Chaqués Bonafont and Anna M. Palau Roqué 6 Morality Politics in Switzerland: Politicization through Direct Democracy 88 Isabelle Engeli and Frédéric Varone 7 Morality Politics in the United Kingdom: Trapped between Left and Right 114, Donley T. Studlar and Christoffer Green-Pedersen 8 Morality Issues in Denmark: Policies Without Politics 137 Erik Albæk, Christoffer Green-Pedersen and v
vi Contents 9 The USA and Western Europe Compared: How the God Gap Led the USA to Join the Religious World of Morality Politics 161 Donley T. Studlar 10 The Two Worlds of Morality Politics What Have We Learned? 185 Isabelle Engeli, Christoffer Green-Pedersen and References 200 Index 211
Tables and Figures Tables 3.1 Percentage of people reporting that they attend religious services at least once a month 33 3.2 Percentage of people who reported that they attended religious services at least once a month in 2008 34 4.1 Governments in the Netherlands, 1971 2010 39 4.2 Attention to morality issues in election programs 43 4.3 Parliamentary questions asked by religious and secular parties (absolute numbers) 47 5.1 References to morality issues in the party manifestos 69 6.1 Political parties attention in party manifestos (issue mentioned in the manifestos for parliamentary elections) 95 6.2 Use of direct democracy 96 7.1 Morality issues in British party manifestos, 1964 2010 117 7.2 Prime minister s questions about the five morality issues in the British Parliament, 1967 2008 119 8.1 Mention of morality issues in Danish party manifestos, 1966 2007 141 8.2 Interpellations and motions about five morality issues in the Danish parliament, 1953 2010 142 9.1 Morality policy party platform statements, number and tone, 1976 2008 164 9.2 US church attendance ( How often do you attend religious services? ) (percent) 167 10.1 Permissiveness in morality policies 194 Figures 4.1 Proportion of Christian party seats in the chamber of representatives 38 4.2 Parliamentary questions on morality issues, 1970 2009 46 5.1 Voters religious practice, by political parties 65 5.2 Attention to morality issues, 1977 2011 68 vii
viii List of Tables and Figures 5.3 Attention to morality issues by political parties, 1977 2011 70 5.4 Attention to abortion by political parties, 1983 2010 71 6.1 Attention to morality issues in the Swiss parliament (count of parliamentary motions and initiatives) 94
Preface This book is the outcome of the research project Morality Politics in Comparative Perspective sponsored by the Danish Social Science Research Council. The project is part of the broader European Science Foundation/EUROCORES project The Politics of Attention: West European Politics in Times of Change. Funding from the Danish Social Science Research Council made it possible for the contributors to develop the research behind this book through a series of meetings in Aarhus, Denmark; Barcelona, Spain; the Hague, The Netherlands; Brussels, Belgium; and Geneva, Switzerland. All contributors also participated in the workshop The Dynamics of Morality Politics and Policy across Space and Time at the European Consortium for Political Research s Joint Sessions in Münster, Germany, in 2010. Our thanks go to all other participants in the workshop for constructive input. Isabelle Engeli acknowledges the financial support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (project no. 119245). Thanks also go to Kees van Kersbergen for very valuable comments on the theoretical part of the book and to Annette Andersen from the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark, for excellent assistance with the manuscript. Isabelle Engeli, Christoffer Green-Pedersen and Ottawa and Aarhus ix
Notes on Contributors Erik Albæk is Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, Denmark. His main research interests are media and journalism research and morality issues. He has published in journals such as Scandinavian Political Studies, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis and Party Politics. Laura Chaqués Bonafont is Professor at the University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, and a research fellow at the Institut Barcelona d Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), Barcelona, Spain. She leads the Spanish Policy Agendas Project. Her research interests are policy dynamics and the relationships among the Spanish political agenda, public opinion and the media from a comparative perspective. Gerard Breeman is Assistant Professor of Public Administration at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His teaching and research interests include policy agenda setting, trust and policy making, EU institutions and policies as well as food governance. Together with Arco Timmermans, he heads the Policy Agendas Project in the Netherlands. Isabelle Engeli is Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa, Canada. Her research interests within the fields of comparative politics, public policy and political representation include agenda setting and policy change, political representation, gender and politics as well as morality politics. She has published articles in Political Research Quarterly, Comparative European Politics, French Political Science Review, Swiss Political Science Review and various books. Christoffer Green-Pedersen is Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. His research focuses on party competition, agenda setting and policy change. He is the founder of the Danish Policy Agendas Project (see www.agendasetting.dk). is Associate Professor at Aarhus University, Denmark. His research focuses on a variety of issues in health policy, social theory and public policy. He has published articles in Critical x
Notes on Contributors xi Discourse Studies, Science and Public Policy, Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law and Austrian Journal of Political Science. Anna M. Palau Roqué is Post-doctoral Researcher at the University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Her work focuses on the analysis of public policies and agenda-setting dynamics. She has published in several journals, including Journal of Public Policy West European Politics and Comparative Political Studies. Donley T. Studlar is Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of Political Science at West Virginia University, West Virginia, USA. Formerly Executive Secretary of the British Politics Group, he has published 5 books and more than 125 articles on the comparative politics of advanced industrial democracies. Arco Timmermans is Research Director of the Montesquieu Institute for comparative studies of parliamentary systems in the EU and teaches comparative public policy at Leiden University, both in the Hague, the Netherlands. His research focuses on political agenda setting, coalition governance and policy making in the EU and member states. Frédéric Varone is Professor of Political Science at the University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. His current research interests include comparative public policy, policy evaluation and public sector reforms.