Läroboken som nationsbyggare

Recension av verket Hiidenmaa, Pirjo, Markku Löytönen & Helena Ruuska (red.). Oppikirja Suomea rakentamassa. Helsinki: Suomen tietokirjailijat. 2017. 346 s. ISBN 978-952-67356-8-9. nonPeerReviewed

Always in crisis, always a solution?

Always in crisis, always a solution? : The Nordic model as a political and scholarly concept

While campaigning for the 2016 US Democratic Party presidential nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders invoked the Nordic countries as a model for future politics. In a debate, he declared, ‘I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.’1 Hailing the Nordic countries, especially Denmark, as an example of ‘democratic socialism’,2 Sanders’s vision engendered a heated debate, with political opponents critiquing the implied political agenda, the prime minister of Denmark protesting the idea of Denmark as a socialist country, and journalists and pundits presenting corrective views of the economic and soc…