4 - Nationalism and Social Cohesion

Summary

Let us recall three events that challenged the political status quo in the early part of this century. The first took place in 2000, when Danes were asked in a national referendum whether they wished to join the European Monetary Union, abandoning Denmark’s national currency, the krone, for the euro. Every element of the political elite – both left and right – as well as most intellectuals and the media were in favor of a “yes” vote. But the vote failed, beaten by a vote of “no” most common among less-educated Danish men living outside metropolitan Copenhagen. This was a harbinger of things to come. The second event saw protestors commandeer Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan’s financial district on a crisp fall day in 2011, setting up a makeshift tent city to protest economic inequality in the United States.