Social capital in the Scandinavian countries

Andersen, Rasmus Fonnesbæk; Dinesen, Peter Thisted

doi:10.4324/9781315695716-13

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 34 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…From psychological research, we learn that only minor differences exist between Denmark and Sweden when it comes to, for example, the effect of personality traits on political attitudes (Nielsen 2016). Lastly, and particularly important for this article, both Sweden and Denmark rank high on political trust in a global perspective (Andersen and Dinesen 2017). Table 1 summarises the main similarities between Sweden and Denmark.…”

Section: A View From the Nordic Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rothstein and Stolle 2003). Sweden and Denmark are also similar in that they are wealthy, established, parliamentary, multi-party, unitary, welfare-state democracies, which rank high on social capital (Andersen and Dinesen 2017;Holmberg 1999;Rothstein and Stolle 2003). Both countries maintain a soft Euroscepticism when it comes to joining the Euro (Nielsen 2017).…”

Section: A View From the Nordic Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the social-psychological and behavioural level, Sweden and Denmark also share some core statistics. For example, the two countries both have high voter turnout in elections and their populations have high levels of generalised trust in strangers, which is something that is closely linked to high levels of social capital (Andersen and Dinesen 2017;Rothstein and Stolle 2003). From psychological research, we learn that only minor differences exist between Denmark and Sweden when it comes to, for example, the effect of personality traits on political attitudes (Nielsen 2016).…”

Section: A View From the Nordic Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Trust in government in Sweden and Denmark during the COVID-19 epidemic

Nielsen

Lindvall

2021

West European Politics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Did the different public-health policies that Sweden and Denmark pursued in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic result in different levels of public trust in governments' and health authorities' ability to guide the two countries safely through the pandemic? How did the level of trust change as the pandemic unfolded? And were there any cross-country differences in the correlates of trust? Using three original representative surveys conducted in Sweden and Denmark between late March and late June, 2020, this article answers these questions. It finds that Danes consistently trusted their government and health authorities more than the Swedes did. While Swedish trust was politicized and shaped by ideology from the onset of the pandemic, this only later became the case in Denmark. The findings provide insights into popular evaluations of different public-health policies in two otherwise similar countries, with implications for future policy making.Sweden and Denmark adopted markedly different public-health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas Sweden became famous, perhaps infamous, for its liberal approach, which relied heavily on principles of voluntarism and personal responsibility, Denmark opted for more stringent policies, closing its borders early on and shutting all its schools in the middle of March 2020. We ask how these policies influenced public trust in the ability of the Swedish and Danish governments and public-health authorities to guide the two countries safely through the pandemic. 1 In a global perspective, Sweden and Denmark are socially and institutionally similar countries, but they made very different choices when the new coronavirus spread across Europe in early 2020. This allows us to investigate whether differences in public-health policies mattered for how citizens felt about their political leaders and their public-health authorities.

show abstract

Section: A View From the Nordic Countriesmentioning

confidence: 99%