Denmark

Denmark is a northern European nation with a population of slightly more than 5.5 million residents. A Scandinavian country, Denmark is the most southern of the Nordic nations and is bordered to the south by Germany, with the rest of its land mass forming a peninsula. A mixed-market capitalist economy, Denmark has one of the world's highest standards of living, based on the Human Development Index's measure of the three dimensions of human development: health, education, and income. Specifically, the country ranks 19 of 169 countries with comparable data. Although Denmark reports a high degree of income equality, it has the fourth-highest tax rate in the world at 44.4 percent.

Danish history has been continually impacted by international trade and by resulting political and military conflicts. These conflicts, many of which ended in defeat for Denmark, have resulted in internal struggles leading to the structure of major aspects of its culture, including social perspectives and notions of equity. With external defeats, Denmark focused its social and political structure around the belief that what was lost externally shall be regained internally; this notion is the basis of the Danish welfare state. Many factors influence Danish social networks: a belief in expansive social [Page 209]welfare, a harsh winter climate that drives individuals to seek comfort and familiarity, and a homogeneous culture that has remain relatively unchanged for generations. All of these lead to social networks that embrace actions that Danes believe will benefit the greatest number of individuals, cultural beliefs, and values and respect for the multiple points of entry into conversation and society.