Sustainability of the Nordic model: The Role of the State

Since the mid-1990s, and prior to the current global economic downturn, Finland has enjoyed an encouraging economic position. GDP has grown strongly in a low-inflation environment, with rising employment and a sound fiscal position. Critical to this success was the public administration’s role in supporting Finland’s remarkable transformation from an economy specialised in traditional industries to a diversified and modern economy, and in helping the country to navigate the Nordic economic crisis of the early 1990s. As a result, the Finnish citizenry today has a high level of trust in its public administration and sees it as a key partner for service delivery and economic development, as well as the mechanism to realise key Finnish values of social solidarity and equality through its crucial re-distributive role.