Finland 2019: In Jutta Urpilainen’s Finland, a strong state takes care of well-being

SDP leader envisions Finland ten years from now

print this

By Pekka Vuoristo
     
      If things go really well for the Social Democrats, in the winter of 2019 their chairwoman, 33-year-old Jutta Urpilainen, will be completing her second term as Prime Minister at the age of 43. What kind of a Finland will she leave for the voters to evaluate?
      Urpilainen has a clear view of the matter. Finland has gone back toward a traditional Nordic welfare society, where the state is a powerful player. Under state leadership, Finland will also have moved to a system of “green economic growth” based on environmental technology.
     
Therefore, the January speech by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) on a “third way” between socialism and market liberalism has a supporter in Urpilainen.
      In fact, she is more than just a supporter. Urpilainen feels that “the end of one history” is at hand. When the concept of “the end of history” meant the collapse of communism and the victory of economic liberalism 20 years ago, Urpilainen sees “an end of the neoliberal age”.
     
The SDP chairwoman is not flustered by the claim that her predecessor Paavo Lipponen was a promoter of neoliberalism when he was Prime Minister from 1995 to 2003.
      “Neoliberalism was the spirit of the times, in which even the Social Democrats were partly involved”, she says. “But my job is to look forward. I see that neoliberalism does not lead to good things.”
     
In the ideology known as neoliberalism, Urpilainen especially opposes the so-called “new public administration”, which opens the state and local authorities to competition, and reduces the share of society in services and administration. Urpilainen does not want to continue on that road. “The present trends in the welfare society do not suit me.”
      Urpilainen sees tendencies toward “new public administration” especially in the National Coalition Party. “People want mini states, where the responsibility of democracy is smaller, and where responsibility is shifted to private individuals. A work party of hope: moving shared responsibility onto the market, or neighbourly assistance - I am not a supporter of this kind of societal development."
     
Urpilainen’s first and second government fix the “holes in the safety net”, first and foremost in services: in health care, day care, and elderly care, and in education.
      “Equality guaranteed by services is the first priority, and that is what is not working in Finland right now. People do not get services on an equal footing regardless of income. There should be a possibility to get an education and to succeed regardless of what home conditions are like.”
      In a Finland with a strong government, continued tax cuts will come to an end. Urpilainen’s governments will enact a “great tax reform” to shift the tax burden from the taxation of labour to that of capital and the environment, but they will not ease overall taxation.
     
Vanhanen has used the expression “the industrialisation of greenness” in reference to future production. In Urpilainen’s thinking it would seem to be a significantly bigger paragraph than with Vanhanen. Describing the “massive growth potential” of environmental technology, she sounds almost green.
      Globalisation is going strong, sectors of industry are disappearing, and the state should not try to stop it. The task of the state is to take initiatives, to lead and to guide the shift of capital and labour to something new. Also needed in this is better education and research - Urpilainen’s governments will take care of that as well.
     
Urpilainen feels that Vanhanen’s vision lacks the component of democracy. She feels that increasing democracy is necessary, so that the “eco-social change” and “society of confidence” might be implemented. These monster words are crystallisations of Urpilainen herself, who is known to like slogans.
      The list of democracy proposals is a long one: the new election finance law, the public registry for lobbyists, the use of “long lists”*, first in elections for the European Parliament, and then possibly in other elections. A clear distribution of labour between the EU and the member-states, opening legislative meetings of the Council of Ministers to public scrutiny, and a strong, political Commission in the leadership.
     
In 2019 Urpilainen also sees more worldwide democracy in the form of “rules of the game for globalisation”. Such rules are created by developing international institutions, and by creating a common political will to abide by international treaties on child labour, human rights, or the climate, for instance.
      So how would Urpilainen’s government put the whole world on a democratic track?
      Through the EU, she suggests. “When the whole world is in an exceptional crisis, there is an exceptional opportunity to find political common ground."
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 17.2009
     
     
* ”Long lists” refer to the system used in some countries with proportional representation, in which the voters vote for party lists instead of individual candidates; the order in which candidates are elected is determined by their ranking on the list. Finland has proportional representation, but the order that candidates here are elected is determined by the number of individual votes they get.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Vanhanen’s vision: Finland in 2019 - borders mean less and parties show true colours (15.2.2009)

PEKKA VUORISTO / Helsingin Sanomat
pekka.vuoristo@hs.fi