Nuclear power, energy policy and new politics in Sweden and Germany

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Over the last two decades new values, new social movements and green parties have become a common feature of most Western industrialised nations. Simultaneously, it has been claimed that these nations have reached the limits of growth. The two aspects are interrelated and can be spelled out in terms of the politicising of production. However, the degree to which production is politicised varies among nations. The literature in the field postulates that Sweden might be a country that departs from this productionist development. This article discusses this hypothesis by comparing (nuclear) energy policy on the one hand, and the attitudes to, and movements against nuclear energy in Sweden and Germany on the other. The analysis arrives at the conclusion that Germany is much more exposed to the politicising of production than is Sweden. These conclusions imply that new politics might have a greater chance of being institutionalised in Germany than in Sweden.