ABSTRACT
During the 1970 s and 1980s, Sweden became a model country for foreign observers. At times when unemployment in many other countries reached a level of more than 10 percent, Sweden kept its unemployment at golden age levels. In the beginning of the 1990s, the Swedish model collapsed. Unemployment sky-rocketed to almost 10 percent, and foreign observers lost some of their interest in the Swedish model. Denmark has experienced a reverse development. In the 1980s, the country was plagued by high unemployment. However in the 1990s, Denmark became a new model country as unemployment decreased to around 5 percent. Today, a discussion of the Danish “miracle” is taking place (Schwartz 2001 b and c, Green-Pedersen 2001 and 2003, Hemerijck and Schludi 2000, and Becker 2001c).
