Refereed journal article or data article (A1)
The curious compatibility of consensus, corporatism, and neoliberalism: The Finnish business community and the retasking of a corporatist welfare state
List of Authors: Wuokko Maiju
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication year: 2021
Journal: Business History
Volume number: 63
Issue number: 4
Start page: 668
End page: 685
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2019.1598379
URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00076791.2019.1598379
This article addresses the apparent paradox of simultaneous neoliberal
change and welfare-statist, corporatist continuity by presenting an
empirical case study of the advent of neoliberal ideas in Finland in the
1970s and 1980s. The article focuses on the attempts of a free-market
think tank, EVA, and the employers’ association, STK, to advance
policies such as economic deregulation, international competitiveness,
welfare retrenchment, and active social and labour market policies
through the neoliberal retasking of the corporatist Finnish welfare
state. EVA and the STK utilised seemingly non-neoliberal means, that is
an economic policy consensus and tripartite corporatist arrangements,
and reformulated their content to better correspond with business
interests. Instead of demolition, the outcome has been the redefinition
and incremental transformation of the state from a provider of welfare
to a promoter of competitiveness, productivity, and employment.
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