It is the country that works best in Europe. Grows, there is no unemployment, the debt is minimal and is head of human development rankings. It is a society that has reconciled the individualism of its people with a project idea in common. And he succeeded. Oil has done the rest. The attack of July indicates that the integration of immigrants is their unfinished business. This is the quietest power. Simple in its complexity as always in Nordic architecture, raised above the sea, immersed in a pristine park violet-strewn cobblestone in which when there is a ray of sunshine flows confused tide of babies and pensioners in sportswear, with nine centuries of history, the Lutheran Cathedral of Stavanger, on the southwest coast of Norway, is considered the oldest in the country. Its interior, silent, neat, sober, without images, in which the old floorboards creak under the footsteps of the faithful, is the best reflection of the Scandinavian style of play frugal life, where luxury and boasting is a sin civic and moral. The black and gray are the colors of this country: from the sky much of the year, the wild North Sea, the discreet clothing its people, of Swedish and German rancheras, the streets of Oslo. The black and gray mimic the Norwegians with their environment, standardize and make it difficult to detect class differences. "Do not think you're special," read the egalitarian philosophy of the country. This centenary Stavanger temple contains another metaphor of the soul of Norway. It has hard wooden benches and in Catholic churches where worshipers are stacked side by side. Here the faithful occupies a large and identical individual soft seat chair with a little space to rest his breviary without disturbing the neighbors. Each chair is an island. No physical contact between the devotees. If the view down a little, one sees that all are connected with metal clamps. Each chair occupies its own space, but it is impossible to separate from their rank. Together but not scrambled. So are the Norwegians. A people who, beyond the wealth that gives the sea, forests and oil, has built its success in reconciling economic and social individualism inherited from a past of fishermen and peasants isolated in log cabins and in intimate contact with a beautiful and lasting nature, poor, free, Puritans and self-sufficient, with the opposite extreme with a deep sense of community that is committed to the good of all, equality, solidarity and above all, trust in the nanny state, which deals with no apparent cracks in the welfare of its citizens through the most generous social benefits and nondiscrimination in the world. While regulates extensive tracts of the life of the Norwegians (education, health, pensions, labor relations and distribution of wealth) but nobody seems to bother him. In Norway, military service is compulsory, and 95% of schools, public. The VAT amounts to 25%. Oil is state owned. And the good students receive generous loans from the state to enroll in top universities worldwide. The state controls to consumption of alcohol, which holds a monopoly over the network Vinmonopolet shops, unique shops in Norway where you can buy liquor for more than 4.75 degrees at a price three times more expensive than in Spain. One of the favorite of Norwegians is the sacking of alcohol and cigarette cartons shelves duty free shops at airports as they leave their country. A bottle of whiskey is a gift always welcome in a Norwegian home. Your hosts will welcome barefoot, smiling, surrounded by children, with a homemade cake and speaking in perfect English. While the egalitarian dream of the welfare state, coined after the Second World War and since then has been structured coexistence in Europe (or Social Democratic parties in power) is called into question before the advance of neoliberalism and the financial crisis, Norway, one of the inventors of the welfare system, fighting to continue in that direction, it is in their DNA-free browsing as a thousand years ago, when his Viking ancestors were thrown overboard in his longship open grave to United Kingdom, America (yet undiscovered) and Byzantium. Norway does not give up. It represents a balanced mix of capitalism and collectivism. Market and planning, idealism and realism, neutrality and desire for influence, ingenuity and strategy. The point is to give to get. "I am generous with my taxes because the state is generous to me." A contract between the community and the individual that lasts until death. "We are free and equal citizens in the same direction," tell me a trade unionist. Has more responsibility in Norway has the most. And it is difficult to know who he is. Information on the income of each citizen is public through the Internet. Norway walks quietly and without fuss by the third way has become a quiet power, a prosperous state or emerging or emerged that takes 30 years for first place in the Human Development Index of the United Nations. Unemployment levels are anecdotal, its per capita income, the largest planet, its growth faltering after three years, will approach this year to 3%, its sovereign debt is the strongest in the world, and has a full gender parity by law in both the public and private sectors. Arnie Hole, CEO of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion, confirms that his ministry has a budget of 5,000 million euros (one thousand euros per capita) "more than the sum of the Ministries of Fisheries, Agriculture and Culture together." The welfare state comes to the design and architecture, which, according to the government regulates, it must "choose green solutions and sustainable energy, of good quality, promoted by the knowledge and competence and visible internationally." The State reserves the role of "safeguarding the cultural and architectural heritage to ensure." It is a statement of principles. When I ask Andreas Vaa Bermann, architect and director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Nordic Architecture, what is the goal of design in this country, answer in a flash: "Improving people's lives." Norway does not look like anything, nor the rest of the Nordic States, under whose yoke spent part of his story. The Norwegians still drag certain inferiority complex toward its neighbors. Eased in recent decades by the balm of petrodollars. Until the seventies, Norway was the little brother of Scandinavia. Isolated peasants. "What he wanted most was to have a Norwegian with a driver Swedish Volvo," says a professor at the capital. "Part of what we have, all the waiters are Swedish Oslo, charge more than at home (not less than 2,000 euros), and are more mundane than us." The Norwegians were not as cosmopolitan as the Danes had no industrial tradition and military Swedes had no colonies or participated in wars. Peaceful around those hallmarks, Norway would marcapaís coining a cold state, reliable and effective. With that image has achieved international influence than its actual weight. Norway has become the most generous donor in international cooperation and an effective actor in international conflict resolution, as occurred in 1993 with the Oslo Accords between Arafat and Rabin and Bill Clinton as a witness, which were negotiated in secret in the Fafo headquarters, a social think tank. Or, more recently, with the former Labour Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, very active in the peace process in the Basque Country. Norway has always followed his path. In the same days of totalitarianism in Europe erupted in the early twentieth century, abolished the death penalty and became the headquarters of the Nobel Peace Prize. The first king of the new state, Haakon VII, demanded the throne before a referendum so the people say if you wanted, won, when he had named in the twenties left-wing prime minister, uttered a phrase that people remember their with pride: "I am also the king of the Communists." The sea soon became the industrial motor by fishing and shipping, together with the generation of electricity due to the large volume of freshwater in the country. The Norwegians are specialized in designing ships capable of facing the worst conditions in the construction of public works. Travelling around the irregular and beautiful geography of the country is passing through dozens of stylized bridges immersed in nature, endless tunnels and ferries sail in solid and sophisticated icebreaker. The domain of engineering when he discovered it would be essential oil as an embryo to develop a domestic industry and not lie in the arms of multinationals. Today, Norway, in addition to oil, exports knowledge and innovation. His path has been different from the rest of the Nordic countries. For starters, the Norwegians opted in two referendums, in the seventies and nineties, to give back to the European Union (which themselves are Finland, Sweden and Denmark). They say it was to safeguard their fishing quotas and agriculture, what they really wanted was to defend national sovereignty had failed to escape in 1905 from Sweden in a pulse that won without firing a shot. Norway is an old town, but a young State. Steeped in romantic nationalism. Jealous of their traditions. In the first exchange, its people take to the streets dressed in costumes and waving the national flag in hand. Within this line of national reaffirmation, the Norwegians have defended with zeal his model of society to the European institutions. They are, but are not. They are not members of the European Union, but are part of the European Economic Area. Have returned to give value to their particular vision of society and that road has kept them safe from the recession and the death throes of the welfare state. The oil wealth that greases the entire economy that makes them reassert third way provides 200,000 jobs and half of its exports. And a global role Norway is already the second largest exporter of gas oil and the third planetary level. They do not want change. The Nazis failed to do so over a cruel invasion and administration of the country for five years through a Norwegian puppet government (now no Norwegian wants to remember), nor the Soviets, who liberated them from Hitler to withdraw its then army without demanding anything in return. Norway, which borders Russia, was the only state that Stalin did not absorb after military occupation. However, in 1948, a leftist government security anchored Norway to West entering NATO. They showed that their specialty was to sail through troubled waters. "Being in NATO was a matter of survival as a country," says a diplomat. "We had the USSR over our heads and we needed to feel secure and dedicated to rebuilding the country, which was destroyed after the war and with 30% unemployment. We were the United States in the Alliance, but at the same time that we refused to Spain Franco entered the UN. We had a highly regulated economy and directed by the State. We were very red. " Norway represents a unique model of society born of isolation of a small population (five million in a territory with a size of more than half of Spain) and homogeneous in race, culture, religion and way of life (in the seventies, 94% of citizens were of Norwegian origin, and 86%, a Protestant), cohesive through a past of oppression by their neighbors and with a wealth of natural resources. Consistent with that scenario and the omnipresence of the state, regulating labor relations and made sure that before a bill comes to parliament was consensus among political forces, progress was swift. The model worked in Norway long before finding oil. The problem would come from the nineties with the flood of immigrants that would unbalance this efficient monochrome society. Today, with 12% of foreign-born population, the traditional Norwegian confidence towards its neighbors has begun to crack, xenophobic formations, to grow (as in the other Nordic countries), and the welfare state, to suffer shocks that were not foreseen. The Lutheran Church (the official in this country) also made its contribution to the social cocktail day Norwegian model is labeled as: frugal and egalitarian sense of life inspired by the hard work and responsibility. The Protestant community assumed a dual role of solidarity and individual control. A function that after the state adopted. The work ethic has a lot to do with the miracle Norwegian. Its inhabitants are deeply competitive, work from young and fly home early from the parental and in return, knowing they have the cushion of State if given are wrong. The Norwegians are needed. Everyone must work. Everyone has to make money, pay lots of taxes and spending much (in a country where a beer costs ten euros). Full employment is the backbone of the model. You work and pay taxes to fund the education of young and old pensions, like those old tax-financed with your education and your pension will pay these young people in the future. The system is based on the use and trust. The Norwegians are considered equal citizens marching in the same direction. No distinction between men black loafers men and women. Everyone must work from young men, women and immigrants. Earn the same. And paying taxes. It confirms the general director of Equality, Arnie Hole: "Equality is a moral component, but the main reason is economic. A modern and competitive economy needs the best minds and hands without looking at the race or sex they are. We can not afford afford to lose top talent. And not just about setting quotas, these should be accompanied by social policies to reconcile work and family life. We need to support women, if not, the challenge to reach the highest positions your profession is still too high for them and children are not born. And children should be born because they are an investment in the future. No woman in Norway should be forced to choose between her family and career. This is a core value here. We created 10,000 child care, women can take a year of maternity leave with 80% of salary (or 10 months in 100%), and men, 12 weeks. We have achieved that 80% of women work and at same time, that 82% have children under 10 years. That is our future. " From these elements, the Norwegians have built a society where the gap between rich and poor is small. They are convinced that inequality is corrosive and corrupting society. Some say that Norway is the last socialist state in Europe. The Labour Party headquarters, the Norwegian model inspired from the thirties, at number 2 of the Oslo Youngstorget seems to confirm it with the architectural style bordering the Soviet realism. Like almost everything in Norway is a paradox, in the symbolic setting of the left seat of da quotes Norwegian Norwegian gilded youth in trendy restaurants.