Nordic countries:  Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland
all rank in top 20 richest countries in the world

Is there a Nordic Economic Model?
 Welfare State? Security? Values?

Yes, Social Democracy – commitment to high standard of living for ALL
Powerful trade unions
Women in public office – highest rates of women parliamentarians in the world 30-40%

The price -taxes
 among the highest in the world
 60% even at relatively modest salary levels ~ $38,000/yr

All under pressure to scale back -
Danes have cut back more than others
Yet all have been growing at more that 3% per year (except Sweden)
EU politics – participating in Euro – had to have debt less than 60% of GDP

Ethnic homogeneity
 race-tinged populism growing
 Sweden - 12% immigrants/1st gen
 ethnic enclaves/ghettos growing

Commonalities
 History - mutual domination
  Denmark over Nor, Swe, Ice
  Sweden over Nor, Fin

 Language
 Religion
 Values - nature, reason, science
  material well-being
  village life
  modesty
  punctuality
  high-mindedness - moral superpowers?
  honesty
Strong Norm in Politics for Consensus
Downsides - priggishness, nosiness

Contrary to our notions of Nordic countries today, as social democratic, open-minded, prgressive, they have some skeletons in their closets -

Eugenics/selective breeding progs.
 Sweden 4,500 mental patients sterilized 1920-1970
 60,000 women sterilized for various reasons
 e.g., “unmistakably gypsy features”

 Norway – conducted radiation experiments on  the mentally disabled til 1994
 

 
 
Economics
 Norway - oil and gas, fishing, shipping
  EU membership?
 
 European Economic Area
  trade preferences, EU policy
  no say in making them

 
 Sweden
 broad industrial base
 Saab, Volvo, Scania, ABB

 Harder to restructure
 Slower shift to service sector
 
 Mergers Saab Aerospace, banking

 Success stories- Ericsson, Tetra-Pak
 IKEA

 11% unemployed (including make- work)
 
 Finland

 the success story of the region
 but still 10% unemployment

 Pro-EU, Euro
 
 rebounding from loss of Russian  markets

 Telecom/Nokia
 > 1/4 exports in high-tech
 
 suicide rate - 3rd highest in world
 
 Rainbow coalitions in govt
 Consensus
 Denmark -

 more small and medium  sized firms
 stronger service economy

 closer to British, Dutch

 negotiated 4 opt-outs on Maastricht
 (currency, defense)
 Iceland

 fishing, some high-tech
 
 economy growing >5% /yr
 
 have to import laborers