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Comparative work on reconstruction and peace building in war-torn countries is dominated by a macro-oriented approach, focusing on structural political reforms, legal issues, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of (rebel) soldiers, and repatriation of the displaced. This article offers a different perspective, examining micro-level determinants of reconciliation. Earlier research indicates that political attitudes in post–ethnic conflict societies are shaped by ethnic affinity. A large literature on the importance of contextual conditions for human behavior would suggest that ethnic composition of the local population and physical proximity to the conflict zone also should affect individual support for peace and reconciliation. To test these propositions, we draw on a geo-referenced survey of the Macedonian population that measures respondents' perception of the 2001 civil conflict. Contrary to expectations, the spatial and demographic setting exerts only feeble impacts on individuals' support for the Framework Agreement. Several years after the conflict was settled, the survey data reveal a strongly divided Macedonian society where ethnicity trumps all other individual and contextual factors in explaining the respondents' preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents a multilevel analysis of the variation in Macedonian public opinion on two key issues: (1) perceptions of the causes of the conflict during 2001; and (2) support for the rapid implementation of the Ohrid agreement, which was a vital part of the end of hostilities. This analysis disaggregates the differences among Macedonians on these issues on the basis of a three-level model where the municipalities constitute the highest level; the intermediate level, neighborhoods, is represented by the sampling clusters; and the lowest level is represented by the individual respondents. We assess the relative importance of geographical unit versus individual differences for these beliefs and attitudes, and seek to explain these with geographical contextual variables and individual attributes. These analyses are based on data on approximately 2,500 adult respondents to national Macedonian surveys conducted during November-December 2003. We find a significant degree of ethnic Macedonian-ethnic Albanian polarization, which makes other individual-level determinants insignificant or trivial in effect. However, we do find considerable significant variation across municipalities and clusters, after taking into account respondent's ethnicity. The significance of such contextual variables as violent events in the area and the proportion of Albanians differs depending on the issue and the geographical units involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship has proposed a resource curse hypothesis arguing that an abundance of natural resources stimulates dysfunctional economic policy choices and rent-seeking, creates conflicts over the distribution of wealth, and, ultimately, can lead to civil war. Norway has attempted to avoid the resource curse by using state institutions to bring oil wealth under political control, including a strong government involvement in the production of oil, a tax regime that guarantees a large income to the state from oil production, and the more recent establishment of an oil fund invested abroad. The strong state involvement in the oil sector strengthens citizens' expectations of benefits they may receive. As much of the wealth is locked up in the oil fund – a fast growing cake that voters cannot eat – voters have become morenegative regarding the current policy, which they see as too tight on spending. We demonstrate that oil wealth dissatisfaction most likely contributes to the recent decline in political trust in Norway. Compared to other forms of resource curse effects, we consider the Norwegian variety a mild form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The macrovalues of the Nordic countries are generally seen as dominated by leftism (especially a strong egalitarianism), high level of life satisfactions, and weak religiosity. Using data from the EVSSG World Values Study we present some empirical evidence relating to these propositions. We find no support for the claim that leftism is dominant, while support for the other two theses is fairly strong. We speculate that the failing support for leftism is partly caused by the achievements of egalitarian policies, which weaken demand for more of the same, and partly impeded by the problems that the implementation of the leftist agenda created in these societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on an analyses of factors related to confidence in institutions. The data are from the 1982 Norwegian Values Study. It turns out that the unidimensionality of confidence is strong, but there is some tendency that confidence in social order comes out as a separate dimension in a factor analysis. Using two dependent variables in the analysis, one measuring overall confidence in institutions and one focusing on the confidence in the institutions of social order, these are then correlated with various independent variables. The most consistent finding is that the personal satisfactions of an individual contribute to confidence in institutions. Basic political attitudes and values have some impact, especially on the social order component. A weak effect of age can also be discerned: Younger people have less confidence in institutions than the older age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a study of status attainment in urban and rural labour markets. The model includes the following variables: occupational status of father, mental ability, education, occupational status, and income. The data were collected from a cohort study of Norwegian males. The main results document that a status attainment model of the Wisconsin type gives different results for groups that have had their life courses in an urban as compared to a rural labour market. The findings can thus be used as an argument for the inclusion of structural characteristics of society in models of social mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]