ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses meaning of democracy in the Nordic countries and touches on present issues. It argues for interdependence between the Nordic traditions of defining or understanding democracy and attitudes towards socio-legal changes, including European Union (EU) integration and its future. The construction of a Nordic model can be seen as a myth in the sense that much in social coherence and community is symbolically and mythically based on history. The peasant has been seen as the mythical incarnation of freedom and equality. The free and equal Nordic peasant represents a progressive historical force much more than does the bourgeoisie in the Western European societal and legal tradition. European integration, along with the economic and financial crises in the Eurozone, has also challenged EU scholarship. The status of Finnish legal scholarship and the quite theoretical nature of legal education and legal writing have explanations mainly in the legal history of the country.
