The Finnish model of welfare state

Résumé du document

Like the other Nordic Countries (Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway), Finland is well known for its generous social democracy which influences every citizen from cradle to grave. To start with an example I noticed that the Finns pay nothing for their education irrespective of the level of studies or the subject. Their medical system and services give them one of the lower infant mortality rate and one of the highest life expectancy in the world. This medical services in Finland can be accessed at extremely low rates when compared to the prices in the other countries belonging to the European Union. Then, the seniors have a good retirement pension and they are also cared with specific awareness. Finally, the proportion of civil servants among the employed population is greater than 15 percent in Finland. But all these achievements come at a cost and Finns have to pay high taxes to access such facilities: more than half of their national income comes from taxes. Then, the proportion of social expenditure in the gross domestic product is really important ( 30%).However, most of the Finns strongly support the welfare state.

Extraits

[...] In France 60% of the household mens avoid that they never do any domestic task. But, there is also some institutional reason to the absence of women in the French parliament. One of the more evident would be the fact that the plurality and the accumulation of political mandates reduce even more the possibilities for womens to be elected. Finally in 2000 a law was passed to make compulsory for the political parties to present an equal number of men and womens on election ballots. [...]

[...] Most of the Finns support strongly their welfare state and all the major political parties collaborate in order to improve and defend it. A specific example : The gender policies The Finnish vision of the gender policies The policies existing nowadays concerning the gender matters come from the well known specific Nordic vision of the role of womens in the society which is said to be much more open minded and often considered as a pioneer. For example, in 1906 the assembly of Finland was the first in the world to adopt gender equality by giving womens the right to vote and to stand for election. [...]

[...] The 90's were a time for social changes in France as far as gender is considered. In 1997, the socialist party decided to put 30% of women as candidates for the legislative elections. However, only 10% of candidates elected were women and the French exception'' was confirmed by the electoral results. France had the fewer number of women Mps in the whole European Union. Thanks to that figures I would say that the French society was and is much more reluctant to changes than the Finnish society. [...]

[...] The women's status in the labor world remains a taboo in the society even if there are some individual successes such as Laurence Parisot. The French society is characterized by a consensus on the need for changes and by the fact that most people don't accept the deep gender inequalities. However, even if mentalities are changing slowly we can't say that the time has come for a new kind of policies and that the slow social evolution will have soon an impact in concrete terms. Pertti Pesonen and Olavi Riihinen Dynamic Finland The political system and the welfare state. [...]

[...] But the Finns seem as pioneers on some points that they are reluctant to changes in front of state policies. Finnish citizens still consider the domestic violence as a taboo and that can explain the paradoxical reactions to the policies implemented. The French vision of the gender policies France is said to be a country in which womens are considered as less integrated and with less weight in the society. That's why policies have leaded the changes in the society whereas in the Nordic countries the policies seem to come from social desires first. [...]