Pretty good analysis from @casmudde but subtleties make it difficult to translate Danish model elsewhere.
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Pretty good analysis from @casmudde but subtleties make it difficult to translate Danish model elsewhere. It's a PR system, so always coalitions + many different flavours to vote for; Danish Peoples Party are left on welfare but not on immigration
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/22/danish-model-centre-left-parties-labour-doesnt-work -
Pretty good analysis from @casmudde but subtleties make it difficult to translate Danish model elsewhere. It's a PR system, so always coalitions + many different flavours to vote for; Danish Peoples Party are left on welfare but not on immigration
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/22/danish-model-centre-left-parties-labour-doesnt-work@Ruth_Mottram @casmudde also Copenhagen is a highly atypical electorate: it is the only one in the country with Enhedslisten are the largest party, for example, whereas even in the 2nd biggest city Aarhus they polled less than 10%. Completely agree that the 'Danish model' of Social Democratic policies isn't proving to be a panacea, though.
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@Ruth_Mottram @casmudde also Copenhagen is a highly atypical electorate: it is the only one in the country with Enhedslisten are the largest party, for example, whereas even in the 2nd biggest city Aarhus they polled less than 10%. Completely agree that the 'Danish model' of Social Democratic policies isn't proving to be a panacea, though.
@RanaldClouston good point. The center-periphery dimension of Danish politics is lost in this analysis. There's a huge multicultural urban working class and large leftist academic middle class in Copenhagen, while the rural working class are nativist, along with the land-owning farmers.
While this doesn't mean that social democrats need to go nativist as well, you can't just skip this dimension.
@Ruth_Mottram -
@RanaldClouston good point. The center-periphery dimension of Danish politics is lost in this analysis. There's a huge multicultural urban working class and large leftist academic middle class in Copenhagen, while the rural working class are nativist, along with the land-owning farmers.
While this doesn't mean that social democrats need to go nativist as well, you can't just skip this dimension.
@Ruth_Mottram@audunmb @RanaldClouston @Ruth_Mottram
Just coming across this thread -
the Guardian's article main conclusion "Moving rightwards doesnt work for left parties" hardly holds up.
a/ it s not that easy to place tags "left" and "right" anymore, as you @Ruth_Mottram already indicate
and
b/ with very few exceptions (EHL), *all* danish parties have adopted far-right views on immigration, "race", color - and it has worked quite well for them, unfortunately
