The Current Nordic Welfare State Model ed. by Noralv Veggeland (review)

This new reader edited by Noralv Veggeland provides a good overall summary, useful for teaching and understanding the collective literature on the institutions, policies, and ideas underlying the Nordic welfare state model.

The ten chapters included in the volume are well written and generally touch upon differing aspects of welfare state models and their policies—from the role of interest groups, to reforms in health care systems, to the resilience surrounding migration, as well as to aspects of localities and neoliberalism (European Free Trade Association) and urban development and stability.

It is not entirely clear why these subject areas were chosen. Addressing this pertinent question more directly may have served to make the book seem more unified. One can certainly say the topics are recent, and that they cover different policy areas and levels of governance—all relevant to our students and colleagues.

The logical follow-up question, then, is, what is missing? The addition of clear linkages between the chapters, with references to common themes, would have helped tie the book together. This is, to be sure, a difficult challenge for any edited volume with strong yet separate contributions. A second concern: there is little said about climate change and sustainability. In recent years, Sweden has proclaimed that it would rather be known as a "green state" than an industrial producer. Such a shift can and should be included in the contemporary reframing of what it means to be "Nordic" and how the welfare state connects to the type of capitalism that is in place (or evolving).

In discussing the political economy of the welfare state, the sources relied upon by contributors to Veggeland's volume focus less on the evolution of Nordic welfare provisions, and more on recent policy changes. So, for policy updates, this is a nice companion to the works of Jonas Pontusson, Bo Rothstein, Peter Katzenstein, Jonathon Moses, and Christine Ingebritsen, which have provided the history, evolution, and political economy of how and why these welfare states evolved as they did, and how they have coped in different ways with the dual challenges of globalization and Europeanization.

Both of these approaches—policy and political economy—are deeply challenged by the recent influx of Syrian migrants. And, as a new collective research project directed by Elisabeth Oxfeldt has pointed out, the national models of caring for one another within the boundaries of state authority were never designed for the massive influx of the other, nor was there envisaged a distinct way to resolve the impact of such a global crisis on the welfare state model.

Globalism brings change, but typically, Scandinavian governments and societies have found a way of mediating transformation, whether by relying on regionalism or going it alone. These are some of the interesting issues that may come up as students and colleagues engage The Current Nordic Welfare State Model, a promising collection of disparate views of the Nordic welfare states. The contributors to the volume should be commended for offering helpful guidance on what is a less-traveled road in European Studies literature.