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They’re not particularly left wing, they just actually care about what happens to their citizens.
It’s kind of sad that we’ve reached the point where everyone having a place to sleep at night and a modicum of dignity is considered to be a radically leftist idea
He didn’t say scandies are radical. He said we’re left wing. Which is subjective to what you’re comparing to.
If you compare them to the US. Their right would be more left than the US left.
I mean caring about everyone is basically the definition of left-wing. So in my opinion this is a non-answer, OP basically did ask “why do people in Nordic countries care more what happens to their citizens?”, which you didn’t say anything about.
OP basically did ask “why do people in Nordic countries care more what happens to their citizens?”
No they didn’t. You read way to much into what was actually asked.
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism
i.e. care about all citizens equally
But maybe we should let OP say what they meant
Ordoliberalism and Christian Democracy are both clearly right wing ideologies and both defend basic social programs like universal healthcare.
In Denmark it happened rather quickly and less than 200 years ago. Soo many things happened in the late 1800s after the abandonment of absolute monarchy in 1849, that I’m not going to pretend that I can explain it all in a comment.
So… while Denmark has a long history with vikings and kings and stuff, our constitution is relatively new and written around the same time as Karl Marx and the industrial revolution redefining what work is.
If you ever get around Copenhagen, the workers museum is well worth a visit for an insight into the specific events that lead to the democratic socialist government. It was a long hard process and tightly tied to the history of worker’s unions.
Very briefly told, it was a worldwide class war. The events in Scandinavia were heavily influenced by the “bloody week” in Paris in 1871 and the establishment of the world wide organisation First International.
It culminated in a several months long lock out in 1899, which eventually gave workers the right to organize for collective agreements. This was only made possible with support from workers from all over the world.
One of the most amazing things about it was how they even managed to organize anyone at all in a time where all workers were dirt poor and only the owning class had any freedom and income at all. The founders of the first unions realized that it would be an uphill battle and were brutally honest about it. They told workers “It might take several generations to succeed, but it needs to be done, so that your grand children will have a chance for a better life.”, and yet they managed to organize almost everyone.
It succeeded though and also much faster. One of the three founders of the socialist democratic party lived long enough to see it become the largest political party in the country in 1924 - a position it held until 2001.
In a cold climate, those who preferred “every man for himself” died a long time ago.
You must be American to ask something like this.
America is so damn red the rest of the world looks ike a solid shade of blue.
If only
I’d suggest doing a little reading on what the political spectrum means, because they aren’t.
When you think a Siberian winter is normal spring weather, even ice cream seems warm.
I’d say the Nordics are somewhat economically left-wing.
They’re not socially progressive, no.
Compared to the US, I’d say they’re extremely socially progressive.
Healthcare, low gender pay gap, higher “minimum” wages (I know there’s no legal minimum most places but there are commonly accepted lowest wages), very low homelessness, very LGBT+ accepting.
Socially progressive enough? Not for my tastes. But it’s a lot better than the US in social systems
It was.
Eugenics was considered left wing around the 1930s. In Canada, the “father of Medicare” initially supported eugenics but realized how awful it was pretty quickly. The women who got universal sufferage similarly supported eugenics.
As a lefty, it sucks, but we need to be aware of our past and avoid similar mistakes.
As recent as the 90’s it also used to be left-wing to oppose immigration, since it was seen as a way for the right to devalue labor and lower wages.
A lot has changed.
This is the real answer, and for context: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_labour_movement
