Introduction

The literature on varieties of capitalism (VoC) (e.g. Hall & Soskice 2001; Rueda & Pontusson 2000; Hall & Gingerich 2004) has illuminated contemporary relations between state and social partners as well as between capital and labour in advanced economies. As stated in other chapters in this volume, the literature on VoC has largely focused on the larger industrial countries and ignored the small EU member states. This is also the case with the small Scandinavian countries. There are only a few exceptions (e.g. Campbell et al. 2006) within the VoC literature.

Relations between state, capital and labour are often presented in earlier studies in political economy and industrial relations – especially those found within the studies of corporatism –as one of the key issues to understand the dynamics of Scandinavian states. Cooperation and consensus- oriented relations between these actors – which in terms of power are more equal than in many other countries – have also been said to be an important factor in the economic success of these countries. Sweden became the prime example of Scandinavian corporatism and was often included in comparative studies (Korpi 1983; Katzenstein 1985; Rothstein 1992). Less attention was paid to labour market relations in the two other Scandinavian countries: Norway and Denmark.

Taking as its point of departure the premise that relations between state, capital and labour are of special importance in understanding the dynamics of capitalism in these small Scandinavian countries, the following analysis will pay special attention to corporatism in a wider empirical comparative analysis of the state and development of capitalism in Denmark and Norway. However, corporatism and the four other themes selected for the country-chapters in this volume – welfare state system, labour market legislation, corporate governance and tax regime – are closely connected, because corporatism should be seen as policy processes employed in relation to various economic and social issues, such as the four other areas. In the two small Scandinavian countries in focus, corporatism is especially relevant for the first two of the four areas, as will be illustrated by the analysis below. Hence, elements of corporatism will be found in sections other than the section on corporatism below.