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In this article, I discuss the connection between security and social policy strategies in Denmark from 1848 up to the 1950s. Denmark is not the first country that comes to mind when discussing the connections between war, military conscription, and social reforms. Research into social reforms and the role war and the military play in this field has traditionally focused on superpowers and regional powers. The main argument in the article is that even though we do not find policy-makers legitimizing specific welfare reforms using security policy motives, or the military playing any significant role in policy-making, it is nevertheless relevant to discuss the links between war and welfare in Denmark. This article focuses on three historical periods where the Danish state was under pressure: First, the decades from 1848 to the end of the 19th century, during which the military challenge from Germany influenced Danish state building. Second, the interwar period, during which Danish society was under severe strain from political radicalization and growing international tensions, culminating with the German occupation of Denmark (1940-45); and lastly, the early Cold War period (1947-1960), marked by the fear of conflict between the superpowers and the risk posed by an internal enemy (the communists). In all three periods, external and internal security threats influenced the welfare agenda in Denmark by evoking questions on the use of social policy for loyalty building and the safeguarding of the country’s democracy as well as trade-offs between welfare and military. Historical Social Research Vol. 45, No. 2 (2020)

Der Artikel ist das Ergebnis eines integrativen Unterrichts an Oberschulen, bei dem Fächer zusammen unterrichtet werden, die sich normalerweise nicht unbedingt entsprechen bzw. die nicht unbedingt zusammenpassen: z. B. Mathematik und Geschichte. Als Unterrichtsziel wird angegeben, neben speziellem Unterricht in den jeweiligen Fächern eine solide Allgemeinbildung zu vermitteln. Hierzu bietet die quantitative historische Forschung eine Möglichkeit der Anwendung. Eine Hypothese von A. Wandruszka wird betrachtet: Diejenigen Gebiete Österreichs, in denen die Protestanten während der Periode der Gegenreformation am meisten gelitten haben, waren auch die Gebiete, in denen während der österreichischen Nazi-Putsch im Juli 1934 hauptsächlich gekämpft wurde. Bei der Sammlung von Fakten und Charakteristika religiöser Aktivitäten im 18. Jahrhundert und politischen Verhaltens in den Jahren 1930 werden die ökologische Korrelation und die multiple Regression benutzt, um die These von Wandruszka zu testen. Das Ergebnis heißt: Auf den Gebieten der Nachforschung wird diese Hypothese nicht zurückgewiesen. This article is the result of integrative teaching in high school subjects, which do not normally correspond well: mathematics and history. The educational aim was to gain sound general education besides specialised teaching in the respective subjects. Quantitative historical research offered us one possibility of application. We chose the following hypothesis by A. Wandruszka: Those Austrian regions where protestants were suffering most seriously during the period of the Counter-Reformation, were also the main areas of fighting during the Austrian Nazi putsch of July 1934. Collecting facts and characteristics of religious activities in the 18th century and of political behaviour in the 1930ies, we used ecological correlation and multiple regression to test the Wandruszka hypothesis. The result is: In the areas of our investigation, this hypothesis cannot be rejected. Historical Social Research Vol. 7, No. 1 (1982)

Caricature can be defined as an art engagé which aims to transmit a social or political message. In order to achieve this goal, the satirical picture triggers an emotional reaction in the audience and guides it through a cathartic coming-of-awareness process. The feelings evoked by caricature must not necessarily be expressed through laughter; but they are a joyful or indignant shock reaction to gazing at something absurd. William A. Coupe, following Schiller, therefore defines the nature of caricature as the outcome of a dialectical struggle between the ideal and the real: ‘This conflict of ideal and real may, however, be seen and expressed in two different ways, in an emotional and serious or in a humorous and jesting fashion.’

Over the last decade, several authors have questioned the conventional wisdom about the rise of Nazism in the Weimar Republic: that Hitler's main support came from the lower middle-classes. They suggest a much broader support base for the Nazis. Most pointedly, they describe the NSDAP as a first Volksparei - in part using a much improved data base and employing complex statistical techniques. This paper examines the true extent of substantive differences, assesses the methodological soundness of various studies, and offers a synthesis of insights based on solid empirical evidence. Rhetoric aside, the more recent studies provide refinement and corroboration rather than grounds for a fundamental revision. As a guide for further research, a shift from global statistical analysis to local and regional studies using a multitude of data sources is recommended. In den letzten Jahren ist in einigen Studien die These bestritten worden, daß der Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus in der Weimarer Republik im wesentlichen durch die unteren Mittelschichten ermöglicht worden ist. Sie vermuten dagegen eine wesentliche breitere Basis der NSDAP. Anhand verfeinerter statistischer Analysen kann von der NSDAP als der ersten 'Volkspartei' gesprochen werden. Der vorliegende Beitrag resümiert diese Studien und diskutiert sie hinsichtlich ihrer methodischen Validität. Diese kritische Sichtung legt keine grundlegende Revision der ursprünglichen These nahe. Der Trend, die Wahlforschung der Weimarer Republik auf lokale und regionale Unterschiede in der statistischen Analyse hin zu verfeinern, wird als Gewinn für die historische Sozialforschung verbucht. Historical Social Research Vol. 17, No. 1 (1992)

This paper investigates current Hungarian political developments with the conceptual tools provided by elite and leadership studies. It develops an argument about the institutionalization of simulated democracy, which applies to social situations when democratic institutions exist but where their consolidation is hampered by the norm breaching behaviour of elites and other social groups. The article investigates the responsibility of leaders and elites in two sections. First, the failure of the Hungarian elite settlement is described. Second, the working of simulated democracy is examined with special emphasis on elites' and leaders' behaviour in connection to media law, the new Constitution and other current institutional developments. In the conclusion the authors make an attempt to connect elite and leadership issues to institutional developments and highlight some normative consequences. Historical Social Research Vol. 37, No. 1 (2012)

In this article, the author assesses the meaning of the controversies about the French and British central banks' solidarity over the bimetallic period (1850-1870). Her purpose is to highlight how historical case studies can become the instrument of a distorted economic view. In the main stream literature, the argument of the discount rates correlation is turned into rivalry between the two issuing institutions. This view omits the reading of Bimetallism as a coordinated discount rate policy of the French and British central banks and supports bimetallism as a self-equilibrating system. Historical Social Research Vol. 33, No. 4 (2008)

Shortly after the left-wing terrorist group Red Brigades kidnapped the former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in March 1978 numerous conspiracy theories began to spread. At the core of many of these theories was - and still is - the belief that the Red Brigades were controlled by a foreign power. The headquarters of Italian left-wing terrorism was suspected everywhere but home. In the following article the author describes the evolution and the different bearers of these theories and addresses their functional character by analyzing possible motives for injecting them into the public discourse. He shows how different groups from the far left to the far right of the political spectrum used conspiracy theories to de-legitimize the political Opponent or legitimize their own policy in relation to the Moro abduction. The Moro murder case shines the clearest light on the triad of terrorism - conspiracy -and anti-terrorism policy in Italy in the late 1970s. Historical Social Research Vol. 38, No. 1 (2013)

By the end of the economic boom in the 1960s, the oil crisis caused an enormous rise in energy prices. Chemical companies, especially, faced a huge challenge due to their dependency on oil as an energy resource and raw material. This paper explores the reaction of West German chemical corporations to the energy crises of the 1970s and their attempts to anticipate future energy crises. First, the companies tried to implement their own industrial nuclear power stations to cut costs and to become more independent from oil. Second, and with the help of the social-liberal government, they attempted to revive coal conversion technology. Historical Social Research Vol. 39, No. 4 (2014)

Ein Thema, mit dem sich der späte Stein Rokkan in seinen Schriften befaßt, ist die Wirkung institutioneller Veränderungen auf die politische Entwicklung, besonders auf die Einführung der selbständigen Demokratie. In den späten 50er Jahren erkannte Stein Rokkan, daß die Funktionen verschiedener Institutionen, z. B. die Gewähr der Geheimhaltung des Wahlvorgangs, in politischen Systemen anhand von Vergleichsmethoden untersucht werden können. Es wird gezeigt, daß es nicht möglich ist, Stein Rokkans Vorschlag zu folgen und einen systematischen Vergleich von Wahlsystemen durchzuführen, insbesondere einen Vergleich betreffend der Einführung des geheimen Wahlrechts und seiner Bedeutung für die Mobilisierung und Parteiwahl in Preußen, dem Deutschen Reich und Dänemark in der relevanten Periode um die Jahrhundertwende. One of the themes which occupied the late Stein Rokkan in a number of his writings was the impact of institutionalchanges on political development, especially on the introduction of full-fledged democracy. In the late fifties Stein Rokkan realized that the functions of various institutions, e. g. the safeguarding of the privacy of the electoral act, for political systems could be studied by way of comparison. The paper demonstrates that it is not possible to follow Stein Rokkan's proposal and carry out a systematic comparison of electoral systems and, in particular, of the introduction of the secret vote and its importance for mobilization and partisan choice in Prussia, the German Reich, and Denmark in the relevant period around the turn of the century. Historical Social Research Vol. 10, No. 3 (1985)

We here introduce the latest issue of Historical Social Research Supplement (No. 31). In “Models and Modelling between Digital and Humanities - A Multidisciplinary Perspective” we refrain from providing a normative definition of ‘model’ and ‘modelling’ and rather attempt at encircling the current state of the art. In the first instance this chapter provides a very brief overview on modelling as intended as a research strategy applied to scientific fields in the 20th-21st centuries. This overview is followed by a short introduction to modelling in digital humanities, focusing on how modelling has developed into a practical strategy and how it has been theorised. The third part of the introduction presents the scope of the project ”Modelling between digital and humanities: Thinking in practice”. The aim of a project workshop held in 2017, of which HSR Supplement 31 collects the proceedings, was to present a multitude of modelling practices from various disciplines together with different theoretical frameworks. The fourth part of this introduction offers an overview of each of the papers in that volume. Finally, a fifth section constitutes the first item of the proceedings as it reproduces an adaptation of the dialogue which was performed to introduce the main topics of the workshop and the scope of the project at the event itself. It serves to illustrate the way we organised the workshop and how the exchanges amongst participants were facilitated.