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Irish Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Nordic Socialism: The Path Toward a Democratic Economy – A hopeful, practical blueprint for democratic socialism
Nordic Socialism: the path toward a democratic economy Author : Pelle Dragsted ISBN-13 : 978-0299353605 Publisher : University of Wisconsin Press Guideline Price : £21.99 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. READ MORE 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. [ The World of the Cold War by Vladislav Zubok: Three decades on, echoes remain in today's turbulent world Opens in new window ] 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.
Telegraph
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Be careful what you wish for, Owen, ethnic tribalism may engulf us all
It is not very British to wish death to things. That's a translation of an Arabic chant that has been injected into our culture by the hard-Left. Welcome to Britain of 2025. The departure from traditional slogans like 'down with' in favour of 'death to' in the progressive lexicon is symbolic. For years, the Corbynites and jihadis have been travelling in tandem, or as Magic Grandpa himself once put it, as 'friends'. Now we are seeing them converge. In the process, the Left is being dragged away from Britain's shared values and customs and into ugly new depths. Take the The Guardian firebrand Owen Jones. Don't sniff: he has 500,000 fans on Instagram, almost 800,000 on YouTube and a million followers on X. On the day Zarah Sultana announced her new political venture with Jeremy Corbyn, Jones couldn't contain his excitement. 'We need a Red-Green Alliance to tax the rich, invest in people and services, support public ownership, stop arming genocide,' he posted. This was the first time I'd seen that term used outside of a disparaging context. 'Red,' of course, means the hard-Left, while 'Green' in this context appears to refer to sectarian Muslim voters. Is that what you meant, Owen? Ever since the Enlightenment, our political preferences have been distinct from ethnic or religious backgrounds. Hindus or Jews or Sikhs may have a particular fingerprint of priorities, but they vote like any other citizen according to their consciences, not as a tribe. Some Hindu Britons may tack to the Left, others to the Right. Members of Conservative Friends of Israel may include many Jews, as well as Gentiles, but it is not an alliance between Conservatives and Jews, seen as two distinct groups. And, of course, there is also a Labour Friends of Israel. According to our way of doing things, it would be nonsensical to call for a coalition between a political party and an ethnic bloc. Ironically, it was Britain's emphasis on individual rights that allowed the successful integration of outsiders. Half of my family is Jewish, from both Sephardi and Ashkenazi lineages, while the other is mixed British and Burmese. They could all belong to this country – indeed, fight for it – due to the separation of ethnicity and Britishness. Different relatives voted in different ways. This is unique to the West. As Sir Roger Scruton observed: 'Our obligations to others, to the country and to the state have been revised in a direction that has opened the way to the admission of people from outside the community – provided that they, too, can live according to the liberal ideal of citizenship.' This is our miracle. Only now it is being undone. Before our eyes, great numbers who reject Scruton's 'liberal ideal of citizenship' are organising along tribal lines. Once this foundation-stone is lost, the cathedral of our civilisation will be in danger of collapsing into tribalism, demolishing the synagogue within it. In truth, this has been done to us by centrist fundamentalist elites. Did they really think that abandoning our schools, universities, public institutions and – worst of all – our borders to radical progressive ideologues would have no effect? The backlash against the proscription of Palestine Action was another sign of this cultural shift. In one revealing video, a middle-class activist in a short skirt and two keffiyehs, flying a Palestine flag, accused the government of choosing 'war and profiteering'. Her closing remark was chilling. 'As always,' she chuckled gleefully, 'I cannot wait for the West to fall.' God knows what she hoped would replace it. But it couldn't be clearer. This is not Israel's problem, it's ours.
