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.