Experiencing COVID-19 in Denmark, Norway and Sweden: The role of the Nordic Model

Strategic communication has been crucial in the COVID-19 pandemic, not least to build trust. Society needs trust, both between citizens and in the authorities’ (vertical trust) ability to handle a crisis. This chapter looks at three so-called high-trust societies - Denmark, Norway and Sweden - and the ways strategic communication has been used during the pandemic. The Scandinavian countries share other traits besides having high levels of trust; they are, for instance, relatively similar in the sense that they are social-democratic welfare regimes with long democratic traditions. In addition, they have a corporatist tradition for cooperation among the government, unions and employer associations. This has given rise to the notion of the Nordic model. The chapter briefly outlines this model and discusses how it might have helped lay the groundwork for social trust, which in turn serves as a reservoir for strategic crisis communication. We explore how surveys in the three countries showed support for the handling of the national governments, despite the fact that Sweden famously chose a different COVID-19 strategy than most other countries. Then we pinpoint some of the crucial principles used in the Nordic crisis communication and spell out implications for future pandemics.