Ask Prof Wolff: Is Nordic Socialism a Progressive Step?

A patron of Economic Update asks: "I wondered if you could give your critique of the Nordic model, as practiced in for example Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I've heard American socialists speak warmly about these countries, but they clearly want to go further. What do you think are some pros and cons about this model, do you think it is a progressive step towards socialism, and how do we go further from the Nordic model?" This is Professor Richard Wolff's video response.

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“A magnificent source of hope and insight.” Yanis Varoufakis, Greek economist, academic, philosopher, politician, author of Talking to my daughter about the economy.
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[joukokultima]

As a person from Finland, and person who studied lot of political history of Finland and power structures in Finland, I say that this answer is very good, excellent answer. Very truthful.

[AymanB]

Nordic countries are capitalist with a "democratic socialist" or "social democratic" model with worker unionisation and strong pro-worker legislation, a strong "welfare" net with imposed negotiation on employers but almost all European countries that thrived under that model are faltering, primarily because the socialist parties formed coalitions with centrists or drifted to the center legislatively.
Of course this is all relative. If you start from further left and shift right, you'll still end up in a place which still looks "socialist" to an American. But to a native of that country, there are concrete consequences. And the shift is constant.

[emisunflowers]

I just realized that this channel is Democracy at Work, not in the sense of "the system of democracy is collectively hard at work [and I'm going to talk about it]" but actually "democracy in the workplace". I can't believe it took me this long to realize that, especially considering the ideas this channel covers. Guess we all miss some obvious stuff like that sometimes lol.

[JohnSmith-vmrx]

I feel like this channel should be a lot more popular than it is.

[aleksanderbrygmann]

As an Scandinavian resident, I would say partial decomodification is very useful. Not just directly for the workers, but also because it's almost impossible to reverse due to popularity. Also it spreads the idea of production/distribution for need rather than profit and normalise the concept. In conclusion, domestically sosial democracy is a helpful and important step towards our goal

[SofaKingShit]

In Norway we have a specialized knife for cheese. It looks a little like a carpentry plane for slowly shaving down wood. It's called an osthovel (cheese plane) and that is is also what the conservative government calls it's welfare cuts: "osthovel kutt". They are mostly small cuts but every year life stealthily gets harder for those at the bottom of the economic hierarchy, all without causing any sudden outrage.

[musiqtee]

Sadly, the “Scandinavian model” is not what it once maybe was. Meaning that the general direction of our politics/policies is equally changed by neoliberalism as any “western” nation state. Yes, there is still a culture for a welfare society, but especially the last 25 years, increasing public funding moves over to the private sector. QE targets the private banking sector, and there is a constant austerity mindset in the public sector. Private health and pension insurance is growing and corporate taxation trends down. Financialization is a growing trend with even small (formerly family based) property owners, and buying a first home is really hard for educated well paid individuals.

This has happened through the last six-seven coalition governments. Our Labour Party isn’t much more “socialist” than the present UK one, for example. Very few on the left (no one?) challenge the macroeconomic scope of our economy, still just the usual case to case pre election campaign “promises”. I’m not trying to “define” social democracy, just stating that its mere existence must be redefined here in 🇳🇴. 👍

[Miguel-jlxk]

Thanks for your posts.
Living in Scandinavia I use to share some of them as educational and "eye opening" bricks, especially among people lacking political-economical knowledge and/or those coming from places where the odds to comprehend the structures of capitalism are even higher than here.

[elainegoad]

We need a gazillion Prof. Richard Wolff's speaking out !

[ronzundell]

If happiness is any indicator of an economic system that positively impacts a society, then Nordic countries are miles ahead of American corporate capitalism. Cradle to grave security is much healthier for the population at large then the financial insecurity many Americans face throughout their lives.

[TheNguyenGiap]

Professor Wolf here in Denmark we do not have minimum wage. Rather we have something called 3-part negotiations where the government/unions/employer organisations participate.
If things go as they should, unions and employer organisations will negotiate the salary for the period untill the next negotiation. If problems arise a state institution will try to negotiate a settlement both parties can accept, and if that fails then we are looking at general strike or a strike with several sympathy strikes in other areas but that is always last resort

Oh and as a funny side note; the Social Democrats as been considered class traitors for at least 100 years by communists and socialists :)

[antonywerner]

from my German perspective the Nordic country's have a full Developed Social democracy. And socialism it is only if the enterprises are run by the State apparatus and if the most enterprises are run cooperatively its syndicalism.

[jaredgreenspan]

I heard that Denmark passed a law to help promote worker owned coops and even have public start up funding. Corbyn was campaigning on that but was unfortunately railroaded. I think Cuba has been focusing on private coops and small businesses as part of their liberalization

[torbjornjuliussen]

Sweden is an example of a promising country who was in the post ww2 on its way towards a social-democratic almost becoming a democratic socialist society, but went into a reverse in 1980. From then on everything have been moving in the wrong direction. All we can say is, listen to the professor, please!

[commiehilfiger]

Professor Wolff is so articulate and concise with transferring his thoughts to words. He makes everything so clear to new people who want to be introduced to new ideas and material. A great political influence indeed.

[julianparks]

Perfect summation. I recently tried to find a book that introduces economics in general. All I could find was the typical Capitalist approach. Pablum for the masses.

[秋分-di]

Huawei tried to democratize their company, but with a different style. May Prof Wolff talk a little about that?

[mrmuttley]

I have watched Prof Wolff for years. Even at my age I am surprised at Prof Wolff's growth in the last ten years. In my 70s I see most of my demographic in decline.
Here in Quebec we are a Secular, Humanist, Liberal Democracy. We regularly change governments because the law of the universe calls for constant change.
The dairy co-operative that has created wealth and prosperity for Quebec's dairy farmers has turned them in to the greediest of capitalists when they sell their cheese to we the people. Government is there to create a balance between greed and need. Quebec is doing a credible job. Both our Provincial and Federal governments enjoy overwhelming support. We call it democracy.
Our very popular Premier says he will retire at 65.
We have done our job and we all say Amen.

[sgn]

As long a social democratic or socialist party rule in the Nordic countries it works well, and the final step is to democratise the work environment, not to go the authoritarian route like the Soviets who just took over everything for the sake of keeping power, at the expense of democracy.

[DeathToMockingBirds]

Prof Wolff has such a fervor when he speaks, I would love to see him or someone like him be up for elections, to dissiminate and normalize the notion of Democracy at Work.