Abstract
Among the five countries where the unionization density is currently the highest in the world, four are Nordic European ones. Sweden (78%), Finland (74.1%) and Denmark (70.4%) constitute the group of the most unionized countries, far beyond Belgium (55.4%) and Norway (53.3%). Austria is ranked sixth with a unionization rate of 35.4%, or about 20% less than in Belgium and Norway. Moreover, it seems that the Nordic countries – together with Belgium – have not been affected by the global de-unionization trend which has been striking the Western countries since the 1970s: The trade union membership rate roughly speaking stayed the same in Norway between 1970 and 1996, whereas it dramatically increased in the other four countries – as shown in Annex 2. From then on, this paper wonders if there is a Nordic model of trade union membership. How to explain high unionization rate in Nordic countries? Are union membership features similar among these countries? Do they differ from the ones in the other states? Indeed, in order to deal with this issue, the common points and the differences must be sought both within the Nordic countries, and in comparison with the rest of the other advanced capitalist states.
