Electoral Politics, Party Performance, and Governance in Greenland: Parties, Personalities, and Cleavages in an Autonomous Subnational Island Jurisdiction
Greenland is a strongly autonomous subnational island jurisdiction (SNIJ) within the Kingdom of Denmark. This paper takes its point of departure in studies of politics in small island territories to ask to what extent Greenland matches findings from other small island states and SNIJs in terms of pe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Island Studies Journal
2021-05-01
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| Series: | Island Studies Journal |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.146 |
| _version_ | 1797770012131328000 |
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| author | Yi Zhang Xinyuan Wei Adam Grydehøj |
| author_facet | Yi Zhang Xinyuan Wei Adam Grydehøj |
| author_sort | Yi Zhang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Greenland is a strongly autonomous subnational island jurisdiction (SNIJ) within the Kingdom of Denmark. This paper takes its point of departure in studies of politics in small island territories to ask to what extent Greenland matches findings from other small island states and SNIJs in terms of personalisation of politics, party performance, and political cleavages that do not follow left-right divides. Even though Greenland possesses a strongly multiparty system, supported by elections involving party-list proportional representation within a single multimember constituency, a single political party, Siumut, has led the government for all but a brief period since the advent of Greenlandic autonomy in 1979. By considering Greenland’s political ecosystem, spatially and personally conditioned aspects of voter behaviour, and coalition-building processes, paying particular attention to the 24 April 2018 parliamentary elections, we argue that it is inappropriate to study Greenland as a monolithic political unit or to draw oversimplified analogies with party politics from large state Western liberal democracies. Instead, Greenlandic politics must be understood in relation to the island territory’s particular historical, geographical, and societal characteristics as well as its electoral system. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T21:17:18Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e72b36c07ebf46e1a7a4c3c19b96636b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1715-2593 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T21:17:18Z |
| publishDate | 2021-05-01 |
| publisher | Island Studies Journal |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Island Studies Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-e72b36c07ebf46e1a7a4c3c19b96636b2023-07-29T06:40:15ZengIsland Studies JournalIsland Studies Journal1715-25932021-05-01161Electoral Politics, Party Performance, and Governance in Greenland: Parties, Personalities, and Cleavages in an Autonomous Subnational Island JurisdictionYi ZhangXinyuan WeiAdam GrydehøjGreenland is a strongly autonomous subnational island jurisdiction (SNIJ) within the Kingdom of Denmark. This paper takes its point of departure in studies of politics in small island territories to ask to what extent Greenland matches findings from other small island states and SNIJs in terms of personalisation of politics, party performance, and political cleavages that do not follow left-right divides. Even though Greenland possesses a strongly multiparty system, supported by elections involving party-list proportional representation within a single multimember constituency, a single political party, Siumut, has led the government for all but a brief period since the advent of Greenlandic autonomy in 1979. By considering Greenland’s political ecosystem, spatially and personally conditioned aspects of voter behaviour, and coalition-building processes, paying particular attention to the 24 April 2018 parliamentary elections, we argue that it is inappropriate to study Greenland as a monolithic political unit or to draw oversimplified analogies with party politics from large state Western liberal democracies. Instead, Greenlandic politics must be understood in relation to the island territory’s particular historical, geographical, and societal characteristics as well as its electoral system.https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.146 |
| spellingShingle | Yi Zhang Xinyuan Wei Adam Grydehøj Electoral Politics, Party Performance, and Governance in Greenland: Parties, Personalities, and Cleavages in an Autonomous Subnational Island Jurisdiction Island Studies Journal |
| title | Electoral Politics, Party Performance, and Governance in Greenland: Parties, Personalities, and Cleavages in an Autonomous Subnational Island Jurisdiction |
| title_full | Electoral Politics, Party Performance, and Governance in Greenland: Parties, Personalities, and Cleavages in an Autonomous Subnational Island Jurisdiction |
| title_fullStr | Electoral Politics, Party Performance, and Governance in Greenland: Parties, Personalities, and Cleavages in an Autonomous Subnational Island Jurisdiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Electoral Politics, Party Performance, and Governance in Greenland: Parties, Personalities, and Cleavages in an Autonomous Subnational Island Jurisdiction |
| title_short | Electoral Politics, Party Performance, and Governance in Greenland: Parties, Personalities, and Cleavages in an Autonomous Subnational Island Jurisdiction |
| title_sort | electoral politics party performance and governance in greenland parties personalities and cleavages in an autonomous subnational island jurisdiction |
| url | https://doi.org/10.24043/isj.146 |
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