Paper tiger or Mickey Mouse parliament? A Political Motivation Study of the Nordic Council
(2025) STVM23 20251Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- This thesis aims to study the political motivation of Nordic parliamentarians to join the Nordic Council, one of the dozen international parliamentary institutions that emerged in Western Europe during the Cold War. With most of them, including the Nordic Council, being without legislative powers, this thesis aims to answer the puzzle of what motivates a politician to join an organisation that lacks such powers and has often been described as politically marginalised.
The study takes the form of a qualitative case study, with a historical institutionalist framework and by additionally using Donald Searing’s political motivation theory. Empirical data was collected through 11 semi-structured interviews with current members of the Nordic... (More) - This thesis aims to study the political motivation of Nordic parliamentarians to join the Nordic Council, one of the dozen international parliamentary institutions that emerged in Western Europe during the Cold War. With most of them, including the Nordic Council, being without legislative powers, this thesis aims to answer the puzzle of what motivates a politician to join an organisation that lacks such powers and has often been described as politically marginalised.
The study takes the form of a qualitative case study, with a historical institutionalist framework and by additionally using Donald Searing’s political motivation theory. Empirical data was collected through 11 semi-structured interviews with current members of the Nordic Council, to explore the primary motivation of members to join the Nordic Council, and additionally their views of the Nordic Council’s role and influence today. The results show that the primary motivation for joining the Nordic Council are a moderate curiosity in Nordic cooperation and an interest in border obstacle issues, often rotten in a personal or political background in a border region. Furthermore, results show that there is both a frustration among members with the Nordic Council being slow and bureaucratic, and at the same time arguing that it plays an important role by being an informal, network-oriented organisation. There is also much tension in the Nordic Council on the future of its governing Helsinki Treaty, particularly in relation to the future status of Greenland, Faroe Islands and Åland in the organisation. (Less) - Popular Abstract
- This thesis aims to study the political motivation of Nordic parliamentarians to join the Nordic Council, one of the dozen international parliamentary institutions that emerged in Western Europe during the Cold War. With most of them, including the Nordic Council, being without legislative powers, this thesis aims to answer the puzzle of what motivates a politician to join an organisation that lacks such powers and has often been described as politically marginalised.
The study takes the form of a qualitative case study, with a historical institutionalist framework and by additionally using Donald Searing’s political motivation theory. Empirical data was collected through 11 semi-structured interviews with current members of the Nordic... (More) - This thesis aims to study the political motivation of Nordic parliamentarians to join the Nordic Council, one of the dozen international parliamentary institutions that emerged in Western Europe during the Cold War. With most of them, including the Nordic Council, being without legislative powers, this thesis aims to answer the puzzle of what motivates a politician to join an organisation that lacks such powers and has often been described as politically marginalised.
The study takes the form of a qualitative case study, with a historical institutionalist framework and by additionally using Donald Searing’s political motivation theory. Empirical data was collected through 11 semi-structured interviews with current members of the Nordic Council, to explore the primary motivation of members to join the Nordic Council, and additionally their views of the Nordic Council’s role and influence today. The results show that the primary motivation for joining the Nordic Council are a moderate curiosity in Nordic cooperation and an interest in border obstacle issues, often rotten in a personal or political background in a border region. Furthermore, results show that there is both a frustration among members with the Nordic Council being slow and bureaucratic, and at the same time arguing that it plays an important role by being an informal, network-oriented organisation. There is also much tension in the Nordic Council on the future of its governing Helsinki Treaty, particularly in relation to the future status of Greenland, Faroe Islands and Åland in the organisation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9188194
- author
- Jyrkäs, Simon LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVM23 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Nordic Council, international parliamentary institutions, historical institutionalism, political motivation theory
- language
- English
- additional info
- I would like to express my warmest thanks to my supervisor, Julie Hassing Nielsen. Her comments and feedback have been of great value for me throughout my thesis process. I would also like to thank my friends in Julie’s thesis group for their equally valuable feedback. I also want to extend a warm thanks to the 11 members of the Nordic Council who took their time to be interviewed. Also, I want to thank my family for their support throughout the writing process.
- id
- 9188194
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-08 11:38:26
- date last changed
- 2025-08-08 11:38:26
@misc{9188194,
abstract = {{This thesis aims to study the political motivation of Nordic parliamentarians to join the Nordic Council, one of the dozen international parliamentary institutions that emerged in Western Europe during the Cold War. With most of them, including the Nordic Council, being without legislative powers, this thesis aims to answer the puzzle of what motivates a politician to join an organisation that lacks such powers and has often been described as politically marginalised.
The study takes the form of a qualitative case study, with a historical institutionalist framework and by additionally using Donald Searing’s political motivation theory. Empirical data was collected through 11 semi-structured interviews with current members of the Nordic Council, to explore the primary motivation of members to join the Nordic Council, and additionally their views of the Nordic Council’s role and influence today. The results show that the primary motivation for joining the Nordic Council are a moderate curiosity in Nordic cooperation and an interest in border obstacle issues, often rotten in a personal or political background in a border region. Furthermore, results show that there is both a frustration among members with the Nordic Council being slow and bureaucratic, and at the same time arguing that it plays an important role by being an informal, network-oriented organisation. There is also much tension in the Nordic Council on the future of its governing Helsinki Treaty, particularly in relation to the future status of Greenland, Faroe Islands and Åland in the organisation.}},
author = {{Jyrkäs, Simon}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Paper tiger or Mickey Mouse parliament? A Political Motivation Study of the Nordic Council}},
year = {{2025}},
}