The Nordic Model is Achievable (Without Going to Extremes)

“After all, the disagreement between the authors of The Times piece and the author of the Jacobin piece is only even made possible by the fact that the Finnish system does not easily conform to either model.”

For a country of 5.5 million inhabitants and positioned at 63 on the worldwide GDP rankings (by purchasing power parity), Finland receives a lot of press attention. Much of it is positive, relating to the high level of happiness and well-being reported among its residents, its favorable working conditions, and strong welfare and education system. The recent ascendancy of the 34-year-old Sanna Marin to the premiership in December of last year led to a crescendo of good vibe stories about the 102-year-old Nordic democracy. Many of these stories were centered around Marin’s government, which was formed from a coalition of five parties (Marin’s Social Democratic Party, the Centre Party, the Green League, the Left Alliance, and the Swedish People’s Party)—all led by female MPs.

Aside from the strong message this sends regarding female participation in politics, the Marin premiership symbolically counters right-wing populist messages put forward by the socially conservative Finns Party, which trailed the Social Democratic Party by only one seat in the 2019 General Election. This is not least because Marin was raised by a same sex lesbian couple, while the Finns Party opposes both same sex marriage and same sex couple adoption. Though aside from Marin’s non traditional credentials—and the Finnish government’s progressive gender composition—Finland has been getting so much attention lately because its Nordic welfare model appears outwardly to be exactly the model that Socialist-leaning parties in Europe and the United States would like to emulate. (Of course, conservative groups in Europe and the United States, in turn, are often critical of this Nordic model.)

This is all particularly significant in the arc of a year running from the start of the U.K. General Election campaign in November 2019 to the U.S. General Election campaign in November, 2020. However, as an inhabitant of Finland since 2018 (and a regular visitor since 2007), I would urge caution on some assumptions drawn from Finland. Above all, it will be here argued that while left-of-center parties might well see the Finnish social system as a beacon, characterizing it as “socialist” ignores how far ingrained some positions are to the Finnish political system across the spectrum. In fact, even the Finns Party pledge to raise capital gains and corporation tax and to increase tax progressivity. In this light, it might also be argued that the slash-and-burn welfare approach favored by British Conservatives (or the pro-college and anti healthcare-for-all position of U.S. Republicans) need not go unchallenged within the Right. The argument for healthcare and education provisions as a basic right might most usefully be made by transcending party lines.