Cooperatives exist in countries around the world and the cooperative idea almost seems to have universal appeal and application. At its core is the idea of mutual gain through cooperation among members, cooperation that allow the contribution of the individual member to be multiplied to the benefit of him or her and for the cooperative as a collective. The cooperative idea is an idea about joining with others to do it for yourself, the group and perhaps also society as a whole. Cooperatives have therefore often been a grassroot solution to problems not solved, or interests not addressed by, the state or businesses on the free market. In short, when no one else is providing what you need, you can organize with others with the same interest and provide it for yourselves out of the power of a cooperative. 

In terms of welfare service provision this means that when services are missing, of poor quality or of a variety not preferred, then those services can be provided by a cooperative. The provision of welfare services takes different forms in different countries and these different forms have been categorized in welfare regimes. A very distinct welfare regime with a very distinct form of welfare service provision is the social democratic welfare regime of primarily the Nordic countries in the north of Europe. Here welfare services are almost entirely paid for by public money and the welfare services are to a large extent provided by central, regional and local government institutions. To maintain this welfare regime, the government collects high taxes from the general public, taxes that are mostly paid willingly in expectation of receiving welfare services of a high standard in return. The high taxes are the price paid for public health insurance, tuition free education from elementary school to universities and heavily subsidized child and eldercare services. What would cause people who have already paid high taxes to receive welfare services to organize in a cooperative to provide such services? What are the incentives to co-produce with others when the expectation is on the state to deliver welfare services? 

These are questions addressed in this chapter and to answer them we will look at research on cooperatives and co-production from four Nordic countries; Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The collected knowledge from these four countries will show that the reasons for forming cooperatives and the roles they play in welfare services are varied and plentiful. It will also illustrate that there is, in fact, no contradiction in having both a large, publicly funded, welfare state and active participation by co-producing citizens in welfare services. These findings from the Nordic countries are also compared to the findings about Japanese health and medical cooperatives presented in other chapters of this book.