Let's look at the alleged differences between the Nordic countries and other models:
Government Spending and Taxes?
Gov't Social Security Revenues Spending Transfers
Scandinavia 57% 53% 17% Rhineland 47% 49% 17% Anglo 38% 38% 11%
Source OECD (2004)
Labor Market Regulation?
Employment Protection Index
1960s 1970s 1980s 1998
Mediterranean 98 93 98 77 Rhineland 35 66 71 59 Scandinavian 61 66 71 51 Anglo 16 21 21 21
As I have said before, there's not a whole lot of difference between the Rhineland and Scandinavia on these measures - much closer to each other than they are to the "Anglo" economies.
That makes intuitive sense, since the Rhineland and Scandinavian models have much in common - powerful labor movements, institutions of social partnership that give labor and the public a much stronger voice in economic policy making and in how firms are run compared to the "Anglo" world (where shareholder value rules all), and generous welfare states.
But Scandinavia is undeniably successful, so that model has to be stuffed into a neoliberal box, no matter how ill-fitting, when it should be seen as a direct refutation of neoliberal orthodoxy.