Closer Than Mars

A review of Pelle Dragsted’s Nordic Socialism: The Path Toward a Democratic Economy (University of Wisconsin Press, 2025).

What is socialism? That is a question that has broken up many a leftist party, friendship, and I’m guessing somewhere even the odd marriage. Marxists will vary between describing socialism as an aspiration, a transitional phase to full communism, or that which cannot be spoken of without coming dangerously close to writing recipe books for the cook shop…