The name is absent

Aliki Mouriki

Danish flexicurity model in a context of a more and more open economy, will depend on its (so far
outstanding) ability to maintain the balance between social and political compromises.

5.2. Learning from the others

Paugam & Zhou (2007) dismiss as utopian the idea that the Danish flexicurity model can be
transferred to other countries in some pure and simple form, as the institutional context in other
countries is very different. The most marked features of the Danish model —namely:

• the culture of collective negotiation between the social partners without the mediation of
the state,

• the search of compromise between the divergent interests,

• the endorsement of the principle of the collective rather than the individual well-being
(which is translated into a widespread consensus that high taxation is the means to
achieve and maintain the high standards of the welfare state)

• and the long-term approach to problem solving, without taking into consideration the
immediate political cost,

are rarely encountered outside the Scandinavian countries. In continental Europe and in its Southern
part in particular, it is rare to encounter any of these features, let alone their concurrence. Any at-
tempt to replicate this model elsewhere —except perhaps for the other Nordic countries- would be an
impossible challenge, according to the authors. However, it is possible to look for functional equivalents
of the Danish model in the spheres of training, long-term investment in education and lifelong
learning, in collective bargaining and in fighting against the poor quality of work (Paugam & Zhou,
2007). ²⁰

A more “transferable” experience is perhaps the Dutch approach to flexicurity. The Netherlands
chose a different pathway to increase labour market flexibility and address the challenges of econom-
ic restructuring in the late 1980s and the 1990s, that of upgrading, or “normalizing” the employment
and social security rights of atypical workers (Visser, 2002). In 1997, the “Flexibility and Security Bill”
introduced drastic changes to the previous system of dismissal law and regulation that offered in-

20 One could also add in the list of Danish (and Scandinavian) transferable good practices the provision of good quality
and affordable child-care, and of generous parental leave schemes.

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