The concept of fragility provides an alternative means of approaching the history of democracy, which has often been seen as the ineluctable consequence of Europe’s social and political modernisation. This is especially so in Scandinavia, as well as in Finland, where the emergence of a particular Nordic model of democracy from the early decades of the twentieth century onwards has often been explained with reference to embedded traditions of local self-government and long-term trends towards social egalitarianism. In contrast, this article emphasises the tensions present within the practices and understandings of democracy in the principal states of Scandinavia during the twentieth century. In doing so, it provides an introduction to the articles that compose this Special Issue, as well as contributing to the wider literature on the fragility of present-day structures of democracy.

中文翻译：

---

关于脆弱的民主：当代和历史视角——导言

脆弱性的概念提供了一种接近民主历史的替代方法，这通常被视为欧洲社会和政治现代化的不可避免的后果。在斯堪的纳维亚半岛和芬兰尤其如此，在那里，从 20 世纪早期的几十年开始，一种特殊的北欧民主模式的出现经常被解释为参照地方自治和长期的根深蒂固的传统。社会平等主义的趋势。相比之下，本文强调了 20 世纪斯堪的纳维亚主要国家的民主实践和理解中存在的紧张局势。在此过程中，它提供了对组成本特刊的文章的介绍，