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2018-01-18 06:38:03 UTC
The Myth of Scandinavian Socialism
The Nordic model is far from socialist
by Corey Iacono, Feb 25, 2016, fee.org
Bernie Sanders has single-handedly brought the term democratic
socialism into the contemporary American political lexicon and shaken
millions of Millennials out of their apathy towards politics. Even if
he does not win the Democratic nomination, his impact on American
politics will be evident for years to come.
Sanders has convinced a great number of people that things have been
going very badly for the great majority of people in the United
States, for a very long time. His solution? America must embrace
democratic socialism, a socioeconomic system that seemingly works
very well in the Scandinavian countries, like Sweden, which are, by
some measures, better off than the United States.
Democratic socialism purports to combine majority rule with state
control of the means of production. However, the Scandinavian
countries are not good examples of democratic socialism in action
because they arent socialist.
In the Scandinavian countries, like all other developed nations, the
means of production are primarily owned by private individuals, not
the community or the government, and resources are allocated to their
respective uses by the market, not government or community planning.
While it is true that the Scandinavian countries provide things like a
generous social safety net and universal healthcare, an extensive
welfare state is not the same thing as socialism. What Sanders and his
supporters confuse as socialism is actually social democracy, a system
in which the government aims to promote the public welfare through
heavy taxation and spending, within the framework of a capitalist
economy. This is what the Scandinavians practice.
In response to Americans frequently referring to his country as
socialist, the prime minister of Denmark recently remarked in a
lecture at Harvards Kennedy School of Government,
I know that some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some
sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear.
Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market
economy.
The Scandinavians embrace a brand of free-market capitalism that
exists in conjunction with a large welfare state, known as the Nordic
Model, which includes many policies that democratic socialists would
likely abhor.
For example, democratic socialists are generally opponents of global
capitalism and free trade, but the Scandinavian countries have fully
embraced these things. The Economist magazine describes the
Scandinavian countries as stout free-traders who resist the
temptation to intervene even to protect iconic companies. Perhaps
this is why Denmark, Norway, and Sweden rank among the most globalized
countries in the entire world. These countries all also rank in the
top 10 easiest countries to do business in.
How do supporters of Bernie Sanders feel about the minimum wage? You
will find no such government-imposed floors on labor in Sweden,
Norway, or Denmark. Instead, minimum wages are decided by
collective-bargaining agreements between unions and employers; they
typically vary on an occupational or industrial basis. Union-imposed
wages lock out the least skilled and do their own damage to an
economy, but such a decentralized system is still arguably a much
better way of doing things than having the central government set a
one-size fits all wage policy that covers every occupation nationwide.
In a move that would be considered radically pro-capitalist by young
Americans who #FeelTheBern, Sweden adopted a universal school choice
system in the 1990s that is nearly identical to the system proposed by
libertarian economist Milton Friedman his 1955 essay, The Role of
Government in Education.
In practice, the Swedish system involves local governments allowing
families to use public funds, in the form of vouchers, to finance
their childs education at a private school, including schools run by
the dreaded for-profit corporation.
Far from being a failure, as the socialists thought it would be,
Sweden's reforms were a considerable success. According to a study
published by the Institute for the Study of Labor, the expansion of
private schooling and competition brought about by the Swedish
free-market educational reforms improved average educational
performance both at the end of compulsory school and in the long run
in terms of high school grades, university attendance, and years of
schooling.
Overall, it is clear that the Scandinavian countries are not in fact
archetypes of successful democratic socialism. Sanders has convinced a
great deal of people that socialism is something it is not, and he has
used the Scandinavian countries to prove its efficacy, while ignoring
the many ways they deviate, sometimes dramatically, from what Sanders
himself advocates.
Corey Iacono is a student at the University of Rhode Island majoring
in pharmaceutical science and minoring in economics. He is a FEE 2016
Thorpe Fellow.
https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-of-scandinavian-socialism/
The Nordic model is far from socialist
by Corey Iacono, Feb 25, 2016, fee.org
Bernie Sanders has single-handedly brought the term democratic
socialism into the contemporary American political lexicon and shaken
millions of Millennials out of their apathy towards politics. Even if
he does not win the Democratic nomination, his impact on American
politics will be evident for years to come.
Sanders has convinced a great number of people that things have been
going very badly for the great majority of people in the United
States, for a very long time. His solution? America must embrace
democratic socialism, a socioeconomic system that seemingly works
very well in the Scandinavian countries, like Sweden, which are, by
some measures, better off than the United States.
Democratic socialism purports to combine majority rule with state
control of the means of production. However, the Scandinavian
countries are not good examples of democratic socialism in action
because they arent socialist.
In the Scandinavian countries, like all other developed nations, the
means of production are primarily owned by private individuals, not
the community or the government, and resources are allocated to their
respective uses by the market, not government or community planning.
While it is true that the Scandinavian countries provide things like a
generous social safety net and universal healthcare, an extensive
welfare state is not the same thing as socialism. What Sanders and his
supporters confuse as socialism is actually social democracy, a system
in which the government aims to promote the public welfare through
heavy taxation and spending, within the framework of a capitalist
economy. This is what the Scandinavians practice.
In response to Americans frequently referring to his country as
socialist, the prime minister of Denmark recently remarked in a
lecture at Harvards Kennedy School of Government,
I know that some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some
sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear.
Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market
economy.
The Scandinavians embrace a brand of free-market capitalism that
exists in conjunction with a large welfare state, known as the Nordic
Model, which includes many policies that democratic socialists would
likely abhor.
For example, democratic socialists are generally opponents of global
capitalism and free trade, but the Scandinavian countries have fully
embraced these things. The Economist magazine describes the
Scandinavian countries as stout free-traders who resist the
temptation to intervene even to protect iconic companies. Perhaps
this is why Denmark, Norway, and Sweden rank among the most globalized
countries in the entire world. These countries all also rank in the
top 10 easiest countries to do business in.
How do supporters of Bernie Sanders feel about the minimum wage? You
will find no such government-imposed floors on labor in Sweden,
Norway, or Denmark. Instead, minimum wages are decided by
collective-bargaining agreements between unions and employers; they
typically vary on an occupational or industrial basis. Union-imposed
wages lock out the least skilled and do their own damage to an
economy, but such a decentralized system is still arguably a much
better way of doing things than having the central government set a
one-size fits all wage policy that covers every occupation nationwide.
In a move that would be considered radically pro-capitalist by young
Americans who #FeelTheBern, Sweden adopted a universal school choice
system in the 1990s that is nearly identical to the system proposed by
libertarian economist Milton Friedman his 1955 essay, The Role of
Government in Education.
In practice, the Swedish system involves local governments allowing
families to use public funds, in the form of vouchers, to finance
their childs education at a private school, including schools run by
the dreaded for-profit corporation.
Far from being a failure, as the socialists thought it would be,
Sweden's reforms were a considerable success. According to a study
published by the Institute for the Study of Labor, the expansion of
private schooling and competition brought about by the Swedish
free-market educational reforms improved average educational
performance both at the end of compulsory school and in the long run
in terms of high school grades, university attendance, and years of
schooling.
Overall, it is clear that the Scandinavian countries are not in fact
archetypes of successful democratic socialism. Sanders has convinced a
great deal of people that socialism is something it is not, and he has
used the Scandinavian countries to prove its efficacy, while ignoring
the many ways they deviate, sometimes dramatically, from what Sanders
himself advocates.
Corey Iacono is a student at the University of Rhode Island majoring
in pharmaceutical science and minoring in economics. He is a FEE 2016
Thorpe Fellow.
https://fee.org/articles/the-myth-of-scandinavian-socialism/