Introduction: Studying Successful Public Policy in the Nordic Countries

This introductory chapter sets out the objectives, approach and methodology of this volume. The main rationale for the volume is to identify, reconstruct and narrate instances of governments in Nordic countries ‘getting it right’, and to do so in a manner that is analytically robust yet presented in easy-to-read and helpful-to-teach case-study narratives. It presents the central analytical tool that all case studies use, the PPPE assessment framework, which calls on analysts to ascertain cases against programmatic, process, political and endurance criteria. And it situates the question of individual instances of policy successes in Nordic instances in the context of the broader narrative about a ‘Nordic’ approach to politics, governance and public policy, in particular but not limited to socio-economic policies and the ethos and architecture of welfare states in Northern Europe. It concludes by offering some emerging patterns of success-enabling factors across the cases and by formulating implications for future research.