Centered Right

Something odd is happening in Scandinavian politics. Or rather, something normal has stopped happening. Everybody knows that for the better part of a century, social democrats have been building Keynesian welfare states in Scandinavia. The news is that economic liberals (”liberals” in the classical, continental sense of the term) have basically ceased to attack them. In fact, Scandinavia’s center-right parties now actively embrace the welfare state. And suddenly — and not coincidentally — voters like them.

For generations, political power in Scandinavia has rested overwhelmingly with the labor-oriented social democrats, interrupted only by brief periods of center-right government. But last week, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who took office in 2001, achieved the status of longest-sitting prime minister ever from Venstre, the traditionally economically liberal party of Denmark. (The last time a prime minister from Venstre held office close to this long was in the 1910s and 1920s.) And as of yet, according to polls, Rasmussen has nothing to fear from the center-left opposition.

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Centered Right
The American Prospect