Democracy is today a concept that is overwhelmingly positively evaluated almost everywhere, but even the most universalistic oriented accounts generally discuss a number of paradigmatic cases such as Athenian democracy, French democracy, or American democracy. A lot has been written about socio-economic and cultural backgrounds of democratic regimes as well as their institutional settings. By contrast, not much is known about the political manoeuvres and speech acts by which “democracy” has been tied to particular regions and cultures in concrete historical situations. This book discusses a series of efforts to rhetorically produce and reproduce a particular Nordic version of democracy. It will show that the rhetorical figure “Nordic democracy” was a product of the age of totalitarianism and the Cold War. It will explore the ways in which “Nordic democracy” was used, mainly by the social democrats, to provide the welfare politics with cultural and historical legitimacy and foundations, and thus acknowledge the ideological and geopolitical context in which the “Nordic welfare state” was conceptualised and canonised.

---

Demokratiaa käsittelevässä kirjallisuudessa on kiinnitetty runsaasti huomiota demokratialle suosiollisiin yhteiskunnallisiin, taloudellisiin ja kulttuurisiin olosuhteisiin. Vähemmälle huomiolle on sen sijaan jäänyt se, minkälaisin retorisin siirroin ja minkälaisin poliittisin tavoittein ”demokratia” on kytketty kuuluvaksi juuri tiettyjen maiden, alueiden ja kulttuurien ominaispiirteeksi. Tässä kirjassa tutkitaan sitä, kuinka käsitystä erityisestä pohjoismaisesta demokratian versiosta on tuotettu. Kirja osoittaa, että ”pohjoismainen demokratia” oli aluksi ennen kaikkea sosialidemokraattien käyttämä ilmaus, jonka avulla 1930-luvulla tuotettiin käsitystä fasismille ja kommunismille immuunista poliittisesta kulttuurista. Kylmän sodan aikakautena ”pohjoismainen demokratia” merkitsi suurvaltablokkien välistä menestystarinaa, sosiaalisesti ja taloudellisesti menestyksellistä keskitietä. Tultaessa 1900-luvun lopulle ”pohjoismainen demokratiasta” oli tullut huomattavissa määrin synonyymi ”pohjoismaiselle hyvinvointivaltiolle”. Kirja on näin ollen myös analyysi hyvinvointivaltion retorisesta, ideologisesta ja geopoliittisesta perustasta.

Democracy is today a concept that is overwhelmingly positively evaluated almost everywhere, but even the most universalistic oriented accounts generally discuss a number of paradigmatic cases such as Athenian democracy, French democracy, or American democracy. A lot has been written about socio-economic and cultural backgrounds of democratic regimes as well as their institutional settings. By contrast, not much is known about the political manoeuvres and speech acts by which “democracy” has been tied to particular regions and cultures in concrete historical situations. This book discusses a series of efforts to rhetorically produce and reproduce a particular Nordic version of democracy. It will show that the rhetorical figure “Nordic democracy” was a product of the age of totalitarianism and the Cold War. It will explore the ways in which “Nordic democracy” was used, mainly by the social democrats, to provide the welfare politics with cultural and historical legitimacy and foundations, and thus acknowledge the ideological and geopolitical context in which the “Nordic welfare state” was conceptualised and canonised.