{"id":17275,"date":"2016-08-24T14:49:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-24T18:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=17275"},"modified":"2016-08-24T18:09:37","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T22:09:37","slug":"the-nordic-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/?p=17275","title":{"rendered":"the Nordic model"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are just back from a vacation in parts of Iceland, Denmark, and Sweden. Although I’ve been in the region before, I am very far from expert on Nordic politics and economics.\u00a0But it’s worth understanding the Nordic model–even if it looks a little rickety today and may\u00a0depend on factors that couldn’t\u00a0transfer to the US–because basic measures of human well-being are extraordinarily high in the five Scandinavian nations. For instance, Norway <\/a>has the highest human development level in the world. I think the Nordic model\u00a0represents a fusion of two contrasting impulses, a\u00a0combination that is perhaps obscured in talk about social democracy or democratic socialism.<\/p>\n

The (conservative) Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom<\/a> makes the point. From Heritage’s perspective, Denmark is an odd mix, although its overall rank is high. Heritage considers\u00a0Denmark very bad at\u00a0“limited government,” because one aspect of the Nordic model is high taxation and spending. On the other hand, Heritage ranks Denmark very high on\u00a0measures like business freedom, investment freedom, and property rights (as well as freedom from corruption, which everyone values).<\/p>\n