The article provides an overview of the voluntary (private) pension sector in the Nordic countries, and relates it to the mandatory (public) pension system. It also provides an account of how the Nordic countries have tried to cope with various weaknesses of voluntary occupational plans. The...

The pension structures of the Nordic countries are often described as statist structures. Generous public pensions are supposedly crowding out private pension alternatives (including occupational pensions). It is argued that these systems unite the pension-political interests of workers and...

Explaining the existence and stability of democracies pose difficulties for the public choice paradigm. This article argues that these difficulties may be resolved by focusing on the insurance aspect of democratic decision-making procedures. Democratic regimes may be better able than autocratic...

Welfare expenditures are difficult to explain within a pure public-choice framework. In this article, the author argues that the difficulties may be resolved by assuming that the main purpose of welfare schemes is to provide the electorate--in their capacity of different risk categories--with...