Introduction: libertarianism in the Nordics since the 1980s

This essay introduces the theme issue about libertarianism in the Nordics since the 1980s. It sets out the key ambition of our theme issue, namely to de-Americanize and transnationalize the study of libertarianism by approaching libertarianism as a movement and an ideology that has been introduced, translated and adapted into very different regional and national contexts across the world. In so doing, the essay argues that the historical conditions for libertarianism in the Nordics were set by the heritage of welfare statism, social democracy and social liberalism, in ways that underscored its nature as counter-ideology and protest. We argue that there is a distinct temporality across the Nordics, and we introduce the main contents of the issue contributions on, respectively, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.