Nordic States Research Articles

A Paradigm Shift in Plain Sight? AI and the Future of Healthcare in the Nordic States

A Paradigm Shift in Plain Sight? AI and the Future of Healthcare in the Nordic States

Replicating the Nordic welfare model: policy prescriptions that recognize the cultural antecedents of solidarity

PurposeIn this article, we examine the historical and cultural foundations of Nordic states’ strong contemporary social indicators to understand whether their successes can be replicated in other contexts.Design/methodology/approachWe draw on a range of academic literature to frame a comparison of two regions’ cultural and theological roots, identifying contrasts to make arguments about prescriptions for contemporary welfare policy.FindingsWe find Nordic history contributes to a duty-based culture with strong cohesion and social trust. These cultural norms make palatable welfare policies with strong activation measures, while the US model prefers to avoid the latter because of its strong cultural orientation to rights and autonomy.Social implicationsTo mitigate differences between the Nordic states and other cultural contexts, policymakers seeking to replicate Nordic welfare successes should consider welfare programming that combines stronger activation policies with oversight and relational components that mitigate gaps in social cohesion.Originality/valueWe uniquely bring together the literature on comparative welfare policy and on religion and culture to understand the precursors of contemporary attitudes and their implications for welfare policy prescriptions.

Fashion and Authors’ Moral Rights

Abstract Due to the judgments Cofemel and Brompton from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), it is certain that the standard of copyright protection for works of applied art is the same as for any other work categories. However, the harmonising effect of these judgments only extends to the author’s economic rights, and not their moral interests. The moral rights of authors have not been popular topics in legal literature concerning copyright and works of applied art. This raises the question of to what extent moral rights apply to these works, which many national copyright laws used to discriminate against prior to the guidance from the CJEU. This multidisciplinary article delves into the complex relationship between moral rights and works of applied art in the specific context of fashion design. It appears that moral rights are absent from the standard practice in the fashion sector. This is evident, inter alia, in the fact that typically only renowned designers are attributed as authors. The article notes that there is no legally valid reason for fashion houses to overlook designers’ right of attribution. The right of integrity, however, has much less practical significance in the fashion sector. This article suggests the correct approach to moral rights in the fashion sector. The focus is on the European author’s rights tradition. The moral rights tradition of the Nordic states is used as a reference point because it allows for the consideration of the realities in different creative sectors without disrespecting authors’ personal interests.

Resilience through total defence: Towards a shared security culture in the Nordic–Baltic region?

Abstract This article investigates the defence policies of the Nordic and Baltic countries from the perspective of shared security culture. To that end, the article analyses conceptualisations of total defence and resilience in a comparative perspective and inquires into existing and prospective regional cooperation in this area, in order to determine to what degree there exists a common security culture based on shared norms and identities and manifested in practices of security cooperation. The study, which draws on 19 interviews with civil servants from the eight states of the region, shows that while there is fertile ground for a shared security culture to emerge, thus far, due to variations in conceptualisations, threat perceptions, and interaction preferences, only three Nordic states show clear signs of a shared security culture. The study contributes to existing research by situating the concept of resilience in (total) defence discourses; by expanding the theoretical work on security culture to an international context; and by offering a unique empirical account of the process of (re)building total defence policies in a region crucial to European security.

Loneliness in midlife: Historical increases and elevated levels in the United States compared with Europe.

Loneliness is gaining attention globally as a public health issue because elevated loneliness increases one's risk for depression, compromised immunity, chronic illness, and mortality. Our objective is to zoom into how loneliness has historically evolved through midlife and investigate whether elevations in loneliness are confined to the United States or are similarly transpiring across peer European nations. We use harmonized data on loneliness from nationally representative longitudinal panel surveys from the United States and 13 European nations to directly quantify similarities and differences in historical change of midlife loneliness trajectories. Compared with any other European nation/region, overall levels of loneliness in the United States are consistently higher by a magnitude of 0.3-0.8 SDs. Middle-aged adults in the United States, England, and Mediterranean Europe today report higher levels of loneliness than earlier born cohorts, whereas no historical changes (if not historically lower levels) were observed in Continental and Nordic Europe. Our discussion focuses on possible reasons for cross-national differences in midlife loneliness, including cultural factors, social and economic inequalities, and differences in social safety nets. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Book review: Free Movement of Persons in the Nordic States. Edited by (Katarina Hyltén-Cavallius and Jaan Paju, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2023)

Book review: <i>Free Movement of Persons in the Nordic States</i>. Edited by (Katarina Hyltén-Cavallius and Jaan Paju, Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2023)

Organizing Democracy: How International Organizations Assist New Democracies (by Paul Poast and Johannes Urpelainen)

Organizing Democracy: How International Organizations Assist New Democracies (by Paul Poast and Johannes Urpelainen)

Renewable energy intensity and efficiency of fossil energy fuels in the nordics: How environmentally efficient is the energy mix?

In recent years, energy intensity-efficiency has improved in the Nordic states and largely among the European Union member states, thus accounting for the region's impressive performance in terms of environmental sustainability. Clearly, there is paucity of literature on the criticality of renewable energy efficiency/intensity as compared with disaggregated fossil fuel efficiency. To offer more novelty, environmental sustainability (de) merit of renewable energy intensity is compared with fossil (oil, natural gas, and coal) fuel efficiency in the panel of Nordic states over the period 1990–2020 by employing relevant econometric approaches such as the cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL). Importantly, the result shows that a percentage increase in renewable energy intensity mitigates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by ∼0.45% against ∼0.29% by oil energy efficiency in the long run, thus suggesting that environmental performance of renewable energy intensity outweighs the efficient use of oil fuel. Additionally, renewable energy intensity also outperforms efficient use of natural gas and coal energy by ∼0.51%–∼0.37% and ∼0.43%–∼0.17% respectively. However, economic growth and environmental-related innovations spur GHG emissions, implying that the Nordic countries are decoupling economic performance from environmental setbacks amidst structural shift via technological innovations. The results are considered formidable for the specificity of energy mix policy especially in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

Examining green productivity amidst climate change technological development and spillovers in the Nordic economies

The common ground of both critics and proponents of green productivity is arguably hinged on the main role of environmental technological advancement. Considering the drive for climate-neutral economy among the Nordic states, the current study examines the role of climate change technological development within the countries and technological spillovers across countries in the pursuit for green economy. By using a combination of pooled mean group approach of autoregressive distributed lag (for coefficient estimation) and the recently developed Granger non-causality approach by Juodis et al. (2021) for the panel dataset analysis over the period 1990–2018, the results reveal that both domestic technological development and spillovers from abroad promote long-run green productivity growth in the panel and country-specific estimations. In both estimations, the impact of international diffusion of climate change technologies on green productivity is found to be larger. Additionally, the influence of these two dynamics of climate change-related technologies on attaining greening economy is the most impactful in Sweden. In the remaining Nordic economies, climate change technology spillovers in Denmark are more impactful than in Finland and least in Norway, while climate change technological development in Norway drives green productivity more than in Finland and least in Denmark. As a robust insight, the Granger causality techniques revealed causality from climate change technologies within the countries, climate change technology spillovers, and population to green productivity. Consequently, public policies should promote green innovativeness and especially learning and knowledge transfer from other countries to achieve climate neutrality targets.

Finland’s role in the promotion of Responsibility to Protect at the United Nations

ABSTRACT Ongoing atrocities in numerous parts of the world make the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) norm a highly topical issue. The United Nations (UN) has emphasized the need to move from words to actual implementation of the norm. Despite the unanimous acceptance of the norm in 2005, its application remains contested. The Nordic states have been strong norm entrepreneurs at the UN, but how they implement R2P norm is less studied. This article asks how Finland has operationalized the R2P norm in the Security Council, General Assembly, and the Human Rights Council. This article draws on the literature about small states and about Nordic norm advocacy, on Finnish foreign policy documentation, and on interviews with diplomats and public officials involved with the R2P promotion. According to its findings, there is a gap between ambitious Finnish rhetoric and norm implementation. Instead of an entrepreneur role, it considers Finland a norm supporter.

Prevalence and impact of vasomotor symptoms due to menopause among women in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and Nordic Europe: a cross-sectional survey.

This study investigated the prevalence and impact of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms (VMS), related treatment patterns, and experiences in women. The primary objective was to assess the prevalence of moderate to severe menopause-related VMS among postmenopausal women aged 40 to 65 years in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and four Nordic European countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) using an online survey. Secondary objectives assessed impact of VMS among perimenopausal and postmenopausal women with moderate to severe VMS using the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life questionnaire, Work Productivity and Activity Impairment questionnaire, Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System sleep disturbances assessment, and questions regarding treatment patterns and attitudes toward symptoms and available treatments. Among 12,268 postmenopausal women, the prevalence of moderate to severe VMS was about 15.6% and was highest in Brazil (36.2%) and lowest in Nordic Europe (11.6%). Secondary analyses, conducted among 2,176 perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, showed that VMS affected quality of life across all domains measured and impaired work activities by as much as 30%. Greater symptom severity negatively affected sleep. Many women sought medical advice, but most (1,238 [56.9%]) were not receiving treatment for their VMS. The majority (>70%) considered menopause to be a natural part of aging. Those treated with prescription hormone therapy and nonhormone medications reported some safety/efficacy concerns. Among women from seven countries, moderate to severe menopause-related VMS were widespread, varied by region, and largely impaired quality of life, productivity, and/or sleep.

Cost-effective options and regional interdependencies of reaching a low-carbon European electricity system in 2035

With its European Green Deal, the European Union (EU) aims to substantially increase renewable electricity generation and decrease greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector by 2035. European countries independently set these targets, but might not account for cross-border infrastructure interdependencies that may facilitate or impede their implementation. This study quantifies regional interdependencies among 36 European countries aggregated to eight regions by applying electricity sector modeling, Modeling to Generate Alternatives, tree-based ensemble method, and scenario discovery. Cost-effectively reaching EU targets in 2035 allows for flexibility in uptake of electricity system infrastructure across European regions, with few exceptions. Reaching EU targets with low costs requires high renewable capacities in Central and Nordic Europe and France, steep reductions of fossil fuel capacities in Central and Eastern Europe, keeping existing nuclear capacities in France, and high storage capacities in Alpine and Central Europe. Regional targets are most influential for increasing renewable capacities, while EU targets are most influential for decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. If EU targets are met, reaching regional targets of Central Europe and keeping nuclear capacities in France substantially reduce infrastructure requirements in Eastern Europe, highlighting the importance of regional cooperation for electricity system planning and policy.

Parliamentary Committees and Ex-post Oversight: Institutional Options and Design

Abstract Parliamentary oversight of executive power is a parliamentary system concern, considering weaker ex-post institutional oversight mechanisms and actor incentive challenges. Yet, institutional options are precondition for making parliamentary ex-post oversight work and this article investigates which type of options in fact exists within the vital committee system and how they are designed. The expectation is that ex-post oversight options depend on distributional power structures, being stronger for systems with traditions for minority compared to majority governments. For the design, the expectation is an institutional ‘efficient’ outcome in terms of ex-post oversight options being placed in a controlled central oversight committee, and that this applies regardless of government traditions. Empirically, focus is on the five most similar Nordic state parliamentary cases that vary in committee settings and in government traditions. For the investigation focus is on specific ex-post oversight options, the design of these options and overall de-facto use. The findings show a clear difference between the Scandinavian minority cases and the Icelandic and Finnish majority cases. For the design, most cases have ex-post oversight options designed for specific oversight committees, but where the Danish Folketing deviates by providing several options in different committees.

Women Representation in the Electoral Office: Progress and Challenges.

Over the past three decades, there has been a rise in efforts to increase the percentage of women in decision-making bodies across the globe including representation of women into electoral office. This was done through quotas, constituency elections, regulations, and party lists. Yet, women's representation in the electoral office globally is still low. There are different contributory factors to the aforementioned progress and challenges. The challenges are caused in the main by cultural and religious conditions. There are countries that are globally recognised for achieving parity in the election of women into parliaments, The Nordic states and Rwanda in Africa have done well in this regard. Yet, the achievement of equal representation does not translate into gender equality within their society and institutions. This study evaluates women's representation in the electoral office in selected countries.

From variation to convergence in turbulent times – foreign and security policy choices among the Nordics 2014–2023

ABSTRACT The Nordic states have long made distinct choices regarding foreign and security policy principles. However, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we are witnessing a convergence of the Nordic countries’ general patterns of cooperation within their security policies. We argue that the challenging international context has led to heightened threat perceptions, triggering a reformulation of their foreign policy roles. Based on this assumption the article aims to analyse the convergence of the Nordic countries’ foreign and security policies by tracing changes in their foreign policy roles following Russia’s increasing aggressiveness. We trace the changes in the Nordic countries’ foreign policy roles through three dimensions: the changes to the international order, threat perceptions and perceptions of reduced manoeuvrability in international affairs. Our empirical analysis sheds light on how all Nordic countries perceive an increasing threat to the multilateral rule-based order, which has consequences for the roles of these states, how the threat perceptions of the Nordic states have been on high alert since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and finally how this has significantly impacted the Nordic foreign policy elites’ perception of their countries’ ability to manoeuvre and conduct autonomous foreign policy, motivating radical changes in the roles.

Vasomotor symptoms associated with menopause prevalence and impact among women in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and Nordic Europe: a cross-sectional survey

Objective: This study investigated the prevalence and impact of moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms, related treatment patterns, and experiences in women.

Tribunals in the Nordic States and Referrals to the European Courts

Tribunals in the Nordic States and Referrals to the European Courts

Remarks on the Recent Rule of Law – Debate in the Nordic States

Remarks on the Recent Rule of Law – Debate in the Nordic States

Arctic science diplomacy of the Nordic Countries

Arctic science diplomacy (ASD) is one of the innovative tools for promoting a positive image of the state and building strong international partnerships in the region. This study aims to identify common and distinctive features of Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Icelandic and Danish ASDs. The article analyses the motivation and main priorities of the Nordic ASD both at the national and regional levels. The state of the ASD infrastructure in each of the Nordic countries is also described. The Nordic states seek to coordinate their Arctic research and create joint structures for these purposes. Since Denmark, Finland and Sweden are the EU members, The Nordic countries are actively using the financial, organizational and intellectual resources of the EU to increase the effectiveness of their ASD. A common feature for all five Nordic countries is also the close attention they pay to ASD as part of their polar strategies. The Nordic countries focus on the ASD since they have much less economic, geopolitical and military resources than such "Arctic giants" than the United States, Canada and Russia. The article also indicates that with the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, scientific cooperation between the Nordic countries and Russia has been significantly reduced on the initiative of these states. This has further complicated the situation in the Arctic region.

Examining the environmental aspect of economic complexity outlook and environmental-related technologies in the Nordic states

Understanding the outlook of countries' economic complexity is vital for assessing the future of industries' product characterization. It provides opportunity and insight on how to mitigate the negative externalities that arises from the increasing pressure on the ecosystem. Based on this account, the effect of economic complexity and the corresponding outlook on environmental degradation vis-a-vis greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions alongside other environmental indicators are examined for the panel of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden for the period 1995 to 2020. After employing Driscoll- Kraay's standard errors for random effect (RE) with individual effects for the examination, the results indicate that the region's level of economic complexity favors environmental sustainability. Contrarily, the economic complexity outlook spurs GHG emissions, thus suggesting that future performance of the region's economic complexity could be detrimental to its ecosystem. Another similar, and undesirable observation is that the increase in urban population hampers environmental quality as it causes a surge in GHG emissions. Meanwhile, the results then conclude that economic growth, economic complexity, and environmental-related technologies are found to be potent drivers of environmental sustainability as the indicators exert negative pressure on GHG emissions in the Nordic region. Important policies that potentially guide immediate, and future sector-wide activities toward enhancing the region's sustainable development programs are posited through the study outcome.