This paper documents and discusses the experiences of Denmark’s and Norway's social democratic developments and changes in the period of 1970s and after. The social democratic Keynesian welfare states are still strong in Denmark and Norway though th...
This paper documents and discusses the experiences of Denmark’s and Norway's social democratic developments and changes in the period of 1970s and after. The social democratic Keynesian welfare states are still strong in Denmark and Norway though they have difficulties resulting from their own successes. Also, social democratic parties in Norway, that is Norwegian Labour Party, and in Denmark have strived to overcome the neoliberal ideologies and to sustain the social democratic policies and institutions. The success of social democracy in Norway gets credit for the comprehensive welfare state, corporatist institutions of interest intermediation, and long period of left party government. Unlike the Sweden’s social democratic party, Norway’s and Denmark's social democratic parties have not relied on neoliberal policy alternatives, or 'the Third Way’. This paper tells that the experiences of the two countries do not support not only the thesis of the decline of social democracy in Europe but also the recent arguments of the renewal of social democracy through ‘the Third Way’. This is why Norway’s and Denmark’s social democratic parties are prominent in the times of globalization and post-Keynesianism.