The Nordic Model at Risk?: Conversations on Regulation
An ageing population, immigration, tax evasion and incoming foreign workers are frequently cited as threats to the Nordic Model. The universal welfare state is built upon citizens and the state fulfilling their particular roles: the state providing childcare, healthcare and benefits in return for people working and paying their taxes (’the social contract’). But don’t these roles require a lot of national regulation? And what happens to them when globalising forces (such as the arrival of workers from overseas, Europeanisation or international financial markets) meet national regulation?
In this podcast, we get to hear about some specific challenges which exemplify the overall context of how big and small crises have affected regulation in the Nordics. Through this process, we find that the idea of the Nordic Model of regulation is perhaps not as fixed as at first appears.
The podcast was recorded in October 2020 where the participants were developing their ideas for forthcoming publication at the annual conference of the Danish European Community Studies Association. Thanks are extended to the organisers for letting nordics.info be a fly on the wall.
The participants of this podcast were Anne Ilsøe, Brooke Harrington, Caroline de la Porte, Jens Arnholtz, John Campbell, Jonas Felbo-Kolding, Henrik Emilsson, and Fredrik Sóderqvist. (See also our Writers Page for more details of the participants.)
Further reading:
- Bent Greve and Jon Kvist, 'Has the Nordic model been transformed?', Social Policy and Administration, 45(2) (2011), pp. 146-160.
- Gøsta Esping-Andersen, The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 9-34.
- Jon Kvist, Johan Fritzell and Olli Kangas, Changing Social Equality: The Nordic welfare model in the 21st century, Policy Press.
- John L. Campbell, John A. Hall and Ove K. Pedersen, (eds.) National identity and the varieties of capitalism: the Danish experience (Copenhagen: Djøf Forlag, 2006).
- Niels Finn Christiansen, Klaus Petersen, Nils Edling & Per Have, The Nordic Model of Welfare: A Historical Reappraisal (Museum Tusculanum Press, 2006).