ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the opposition to nuclear energy as reflected in the 1980 referendum and the extent of support for the women’s movement in various sections of the population. The issues of nuclear power and state intervention in the economy were the two attitude dimensions most clearly associated with changes in party choice between 1973 and 1976. An interview survey done by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation after the election suggests that the nuclear energy issue was more important than the wage-earners’ funds in influencing the party choice of the voters. In analysing voting social scientists have traditionally used a model which assumes that the voters, on the basis of their values, needs and desires, assess the policy of the different parties. In Sweden many observers maintain that the new technology-ecology dimension in the late 1970s is virtually on a comparable footing with the left-right dimension in influencing the voters’ decisions concerning the parties and their policies.
