Good Governance Gone Bad : : How Nordic Adaptability Leads to Excess / / Darius Ornston.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2018
• VerfasserIn: Ornston, Darius,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Series: Cornell Studies in Political Economy
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (276 p.)

If we believe that the small, open economies of Nordic Europe are paragons of good governance, why are they so prone to economic crisis? In Good Governance Gone Bad, Darius Ornston provides evidence that adapting flexibly to rapid, technological change and shifting patterns of economic competition may be a great virtue, but it does not prevent countries from making strikingly poor policy choices and suffering devastating results. Home to three of the "big five" financial crises in the twentieth century, Nordic Europe in the new millennium has witnessed a housing bubble in Denmark, the collapse of the Finnish ICT industry, and the Icelandic financial crisis.Ornston argues that the reason for these two seemingly contradictory phenomena is one and the same. The dense, cohesive relationships that enable these countries to respond to crisis with radical reform render them vulnerable to policy overshooting and overinvestment. Good Governance Gone Bad tests this argument by examining the rise and decline of heavy industry in postwar Sweden, the emergence and disruption of the Finnish ICT industry, and Iceland's impressive but short-lived reign as a financial powerhouse as well as ten similar and contrasting cases across Europe and North America. Ornston demonstrates how small and large states alike can learn from the Nordic experience, providing a valuable corrective to uncritical praise for the "Nordic model."

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. THE NORDIC PARADOX -- 1. GOOD GOVERNANCE GONE BAD Overshooting in Nordic Europe -- 2. MANUFACTURING A CRISIS Planning in Sweden -- 3. CONNECTING PEOPLE Innovation in Finland -- 4. FROM BANKING ON FISH TO FISHY BANKS Liberalization in Iceland -- 5. OVERSHOOTING IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE Contrasting Cases -- 6. OVERSHOOTING BEYOND NORDIC EUROPE Ireland and Estonia -- Conclusion. LESSONS FOR LARGE STATES -- Appendix 1. MEASURING COHESIVE, ENCOMPASSING NETWORKS -- Appendix 2. CHARACTERIZING ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT -- Notes -- References -- Index