Finland as global socialist model?(INSIDER REPORT)

Following the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939, Finnish militiamen--some of them mounted on skis--fought a heroic and successful "Winter War" to evict the Red Army. Although Finland's government, in large measure owing to geography, was officially neutral during the Cold War, the Finnish people were unabashedly opposed to totalitarian socialism on the Soviet model. Unfortunately, they proved susceptible to the less feral version pioneered by Sweden.

The October 26 Christian Science Monitor extolled Finland for boasting both "a thriving hi-tech economy ranked most competitive in the world" and "a welfare state that has created one of the globe's most egalitarian societies. Envious policymakers from far and wide are beating a path to Helsinki to learn the secrets of Finland's success."

The Finnish model of socialism isn't suitable for other societies. Finnish academic Petri Rouvinen points out that "The Finnish mindset is collectivist.... It's that kind of mindset that makes it possible to have this sort of system." "We are a small homogenous country, heavily state-based, and our social model as a whole is so typically Finnish that it won't travel," admits sociology professor Riisto Erasaari of Helsinki University. "But parts of it ... are exportable."

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