Pelle Dragsted is a Danish opposition MP with – and chief spokesperson of – the Red-Green Alliance. His Nordic Socialism: The Path Toward a Democratic Economy is a rousing invitation to reimagine the possibilities of socialism – neither as utopian dream nor Soviet nostalgia, but a successful living example embedded in and underpinning the Nordic model.
For Dragsted, the question isn’t whether socialism is feasible; it’s whether Denmark can go further and build on its existing institutions of economic democracy. For Irish readers enamoured of the Nordic model, a key question is which elements of this ambitious framework can usefully be emulated.
The central premise of Nordic Socialism is that the Nordic countries – long admired for their comprehensive welfare states – are not merely kinder versions of capitalism. They are hybrid economies, with significant portions already organised around socialist principles: public ownership, co-ops, mutual banks, and social wealth funds.
Dragsted posits that this is not an accident of history, but a democratic tradition worth deepening. Specifically, he proposes 10 clear reforms as a roadmap to expanding worker ownership, democratising investment, limiting the power of oligarchic capital and reframing the debate around economic democracy.
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The author’s view of the Nordic countries isn’t rose-tinted. He acknowledges their contradictions, their concessions to neoliberalism, and the real limits of what national governments can do under global capitalism. But he also insists that despair is not strategy. The challenge, as he sees it, is to chip away at the dominance of market fundamentalism – not by overthrowing the system, but by expanding the spaces where democracy already governs economic life.
Nordic Socialism may be written with a Danish readership in mind, but its relevance extends beyond Scandinavia. For anyone interested in building a fairer, freer future – without waiting for a revolution – it’s essential reading.
For the Irish reader there may be a wistful element of “paradise lost” in our democratic economic institutions that have vanished or are diminished: our building societies have been demutualised; our public enterprises have been privatised; our biggest co-operatives have gone corporate; our pension fund was raided to bail out the banks. Attempts to build “Gaelic socialism” could mine this rich seam of our economic history.
Verdict: a hopeful, practical blueprint for democratic socialism in the 21st century. Clear-eyed and grounded in lived experience.
