Michael Wallerstein had a long-term research interest in social democracy in the Nordic countries, a theme that we worked on together for many years. Our first paper on the topic praised the Nordic achievements, but claimed that social democracy was in retreat. As we saw it, “both the egalitarian distribution of income and the security of income that distinguished social democratic societies from other capitalist democracies are declining” (Moene and Wallerstein 1993a: 231–232). As time went on and we continued our work, we became less certain that the era of social democracy was actually over, and more certain that whatever the future of the social democracy in Europe, the Nordic lessons were highly relevant for social reformers in other parts of the world, including developing countries.

The societal model of northern Europe goes under many names. While the Swedes call the system the “Swedish model,” the Danes and Norwegians insist on the “Scandinavian model.” More recently, representatives of the European Union have started to use “Nordic model,” which now seems to be the most popular term. Outside Europe the model is best known simply as “social democracy,” a term that most Europeans associate with specific political parties and ideologies rather than with an economic and political system.

Social democracy in the Nordic countries is strong evidence for the achievements of unions as opposed to workers' ownership.