This book is the first systematic, comparative study of social workers in electoral politics across liberal democracies. Drawing on a common conceptual framework, leading scholars analyse the recruitment, career trajectories and advocacy roles of social workers in Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, the UK and USA. The book highlights key similarities, differences and underlying factors that shape social workers’ political engagement.

Chapter 5, Finland: taking political office to a new level?, focuses on politicians with a social worker background in Finland, a country typically considered part of the Nordic welfare state model. It examines such politicians at both the national and county levels. First, the chapter provides a brief overview of members of Parliament (MPs) with a social worker background, noting that, historically, their number has been relatively limited. Furthermore, new empirical findings are presented concerning social workers elected to the new county-level councils in the newly established regional entities known as ‘wellbeing services counties’. Introduced in 2023, these 21 counties are responsible for organising health, social and rescue services in Finland. The empirical findings are based on a survey conducted in spring 2024 on the political recruitment of social workers to county councils, their career paths and their social advocacy.