Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Global cities
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Macron And The Nordic Model

Bo Rothstein 22nd May 2017

Bo Rothstein

Bo Rothstein

Emmanuel Macron’s political success has surprised many political commentators. The fact that in a large country like France with long-standing political traditions and within a very brief period he has succeeded in building a whole new political movement outside the traditional parties and then getting two thirds of the votes cast in a presidential election is a unique, not to say historic, political achievement. There are, of course, many explanations for this such as the split on the left and the traditional conservative presidential candidate’s shady dealings with public money. Much has also been written about Macron’s interesting personality and his charisma. Individuals certainly do play a role in history, but there is an argument for going beyond this superficial level and instead look more closely at Macron’s policies and his election program.

Since the breakthrough of industrialism in the late 19th century, the western world has tested a number of different socio-economic systems. We have seen variations of authoritarian communism in the former Soviet Union and the states under its domination. We have also seen both democratic conservatism (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and the more authoritarian Catholic types of conservatism (Spain under Franco, Portugal under Salazar). We have also experienced Italian and German fascism and other forms of authoritarian rule. We have been able to study the more state-directed social democracy in countries such as Britain and Sweden until the 1970s and then different forms of neoliberalism in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.

Can we say today which of these social systems is ‘best’. This can of course be seen as a matter of ideological convictions, but there are also other ways to think about this issue. One of these has been presented by Amartya Sen, one of the world’s most well-known social scientists. His idea of ​​justice is, very simplified, that we should organize society so that people are given the opportunity to realize their own life projects. Simply put, everyone cannot become ballet dancers, NHL hockey players or political science professors, but if you have ambition and talent for these tasks, then society should give you the capabilities that will enable you to realize them. The advantage of this theory is that it does not prescribe in a paternalistic way how people should live their lives but instead works to provide them with the actual capabilities enabling them to realize their own life projects.

In reality, this is about things like general and free education as well as health care. In addition, there are important things like legal capacity, social security and, of course, the political freedoms we associate with democracy. A child who dies soon after birth can of course not realize any life projects, but children who do not receive adequate education or health care, who lack access to clean water and who live in severe poverty, are also deprived of the capabilities Sen’s theory focuses on.

His theory has had a great practical influence, especially when the UN drew up its measurement of human well-being. His thinking has also influenced many other research institutions that focus on ranking countries on other dimensions such as gender equality, environmental protection, social trust, the rule-of-law and the absence of corruption. Here, interestingly, sophisticated empirical research based on large amounts of data meets with philosophical questions about social justice and what is ‘the good life’.


Become part of our Community of Thought Leaders


Get fresh perspectives delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter to receive thought-provoking opinion articles and expert analysis on the most pressing political, economic and social issues of our time. Join our community of engaged readers and be a part of the conversation.

Sign up here

A central question is of course whether this type of research has succeeded in responding to the question which of the above-mentioned socio-economic orders best serves to realize the Sens theory of social justice. The answer to that question is, in my opinion, a ‘yes’ and this is what we call ‘the Nordic model’. It is a society that, on the one hand, adheres to the principles of a market economy such as competition, free trade, openness and innovation. But it is, on the other hand, a society that does not have a naive belief that markets are self-regulatory and that politics should be about counteracting public regulation. On the contrary, these societies are working to regulate market mechanisms in a variety of ways so as not to result in monopoly, unfair profits, difficult environmental problems and corruption.

The highly respected Harvard academic Dani Rodrik has expressed this well. In order to function, markets need to be surrounded by a large set of institutions that not only guarantee legal rights but also counteract corruption and fraud. There must also be institutions that mitigate the social risks and social conflicts that market economies tend to create. Rodrik also put forward the importance of various informal institutions that create social trust and increase the ability to cooperate in society. In short, in order to work well in creating human welfare, the market economy needs a fairly extensive public system of regulation and institutional checks.

Macron’s policy is entirely in line with this model. He does not share the French Socialist Party’s (and now also its British sister party’s) strong anti-market ideology. But he is not a neo-liberal who wants to scrap France’s social policy system. On the contrary, he wants to invest in a labor market policy on typically Nordic lines, where one wants to give a second chance to those who lose their jobs due to globalization. He also wants to increase political efforts in areas such as health care, climate change and culture.

For a very long time, the political struggle has stood between one ideology that hailed the market as the solution to almost every problem and that put emphasis on deregulation and privatization. On the other side, the traditional left, not least in France, has seen the market as the incarnation of all things evil.  Research on what creates the greatest degree of human well-being now provides a different and fairly clear answer to which model performs best. Namely, that there is a particular combination of market and political regulation that delivers the highest degree of human well-being. This and the choice of Macron can indicate that we are facing a new political shift in history. If the meaning of democracy is the realization of the ‘will of the people’ it is reasonable to think that this ought to result in better living conditions for the people.

It is now clear that, from the many societal models that have been tried since the breakthrough of industrialism, social research can point to a winner in terms of human well-being and this is the Nordic model that Macron promotes. It should be underlined that this model has been supported by both Social Democratic and Center-Right governments in all the Nordic countries during the last two decades. This implies that the dismissal of both the traditional political right and left, which has been Macron’s signature in the French elections, should not necessarily be seen as merely a clever political tactic. Rather, it can be seen as a sign that the traditional right-left dimension based on the idea of seeing market versus state as a zero-sum game has begun to fade away.

First published in Swedish by Dagens Nyheter (paywall)

Bo Rothstein
Bo Rothstein

Bo Rothstein is professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg.

You are here: Home / Politics / Macron And The Nordic Model

Most Popular Posts

Belarus,Lithuania A tale of two countries: Belarus and LithuaniaThorvaldur Gylfason and Eduard Hochreiter
dissent,social critique,identity,politics,gender Delegitimising social critique and dissent on the leftEszter Kováts
retirement,Finland,ageing,pension,reform Late retirement: possible for many, not for allKati Kuitto
Credit Suisse,CS,UBS,regulation The failure of Credit Suisse—not just a one-offPeter Bofinger
Europe,transition,climate For a just and democratic climate transitionJulia Cagé, Lucas Chancel, Anne-Laure Delatte and 8 more

Most Recent Posts

Barcelona,feminist,feminism Barcelona: a feminist municipalism now at riskLaura Pérez Castaño
Spain,elections,Sánchez Is Spain on the right track?Bettina Luise Rürup
CBI,Confederation of British Industry,harassment Crisis at Britain’s CBI holds lessons for othersMarianna Fotaki
central and eastern Europe,CEE,renewable Central and eastern Europe: a renewable-energy win-winPaweł Czyżak
Cape Town,inequality Tackling inequality in the city—Cape TownWarren Smit

Other Social Europe Publications

Bildschirmfoto 2023 05 08 um 21.36.25 scaled 1 RE No. 13: Failed Market Approaches to Long-Term Care
front cover Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The spring issue of the Progressive Post magazine from FEPS is out!

The Special Coverage of this new edition is dedicated to Feminist Foreign Policy, to try to gauge its potential but also the risk that it could be perceived as another attempt by the west to impose its vision on the global south.

In this issue, we also look at the human cost of the war in Ukraine, analyse the increasing connection between the centre right and the far right, and explore the difficulties, particularly for women, of finding a good work-life balance and living good working lives.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ETUI advertisement

The four transitions and the missing one

Europe is at a crossroads, painfully navigating four transitions (green, digital, economic and geopolitical) at once but missing the transformative and ambitious social transition it needs. In other words, if the EU is to withstand the storm, we do not have the luxury of abstaining from reflecting on its social foundations, of which intermittent democratic discontent is only one expression. It is against this background that the ETUI/ETUC publishes its annual flagship publication Benchmarking Working Europe 2023, with the support of more than 70 graphs and a special contribution from two guest editors, Professors Kalypso Nikolaidïs and Albena Azmanova.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Unaffordable and inadequate housing in Europe

Unaffordable housing is a matter of great concern in the European Union. It leads to homelessness, housing insecurity, financial strain and inadequate housing. It also prevents young people from leaving their family home. These problems affect people’s health and wellbeing, embody unequal living conditions and opportunities, and result in healthcare costs, reduced productivity and environmental damage.

This new report maps housing problems in the EU and the policies that address them, drawing on Eurofound’s Living, working and Covid-19 e-survey, EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and input from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube