24 Shares Denmark is often held up as an ideal society with a well-functioning welfare state, low levels of corruption, and high levels of social and political stability. But behind this perception, the country is facing up to a number of important challenges. Drawing on a new book, Rune Stubager, Kasper M. Hansen, Michael S. Lewis-Beck and Richard Nadeau explain how voters have responded to key macrosocial challenges since the 1970s and assess where this leaves the future of the Danish ideal. Of late, Denmark has been much in the political news. During the 2016 American presidential campaign, it became an ideological lightning rod among Democratic candidates, with Bernie Sanders praising Denmark as a role model for American society, a goal Hillary Clinton claimed was impossible. In her words, “I love Denmark… But we are not Denmark.”