Documented examples

The move, and what it needed

The Prime Minister's Office coordinates an interministerial foresight working group that drafts a scenario report once per electoral term, and Parliament's Committee for the Future answers it, so foresight is a recurring duty of both branches rather than a project.

Preconditions

• Cross-party agreement in Parliament that long-range questions deserve a standing committee
• A Prime Minister's Office strategy department with a secretariat to run the interministerial process
• A consensus political culture in which coalition changes do not discard the previous government's institutions

Where else it has been used: Several parliaments have set up committees for the future modelled on Finland's; the retelling usually keeps the committee and drops the government's matching duty to report, which is the half that makes the dialogue run.

The move, and what it needed

The state made long-term, multi-year research programmes conditional on firms, universities and institutes owning a joint company and co-writing its research strategy, with the innovation agency paying the majority share. The structure held collaboration together only while the earmarked public share kept flowing.

Preconditions

• An innovation agency with a large applied-research budget to earmark for a decade
• Lead firms in each cluster willing to co-own a company with universities and pay roughly 40 percent
• A political consensus on the earmark, since the model had no independent revenue when it was withdrawn

Where else it has been used: The SHOKs borrowed from the competence-centre model used in Sweden and Austria. The Finnish lesson is that a dedicated earmark is quick to cut in an austerity round, while centres that had built their own membership base, like DIMECC, survived the cut.

The move, and what it needed

Parliament and the communications regulator turned bank and mobile-operator credentials into shared national infrastructure by law: providers must sell authentications to licensed brokers at a capped wholesale price, so any public or private e-service can accept every strong credential through one contract, and the state's own Suomi.fi service buys them the same way.

Preconditions

• Near-universal online banking credentials already held by the population.
• A regulator with the power to set and lower a wholesale price cap and enforce interconnection terms.
• A state authentication service large enough to be the anchor customer for brokered identification.

The move, and what it needed

The state made libraries a statutory municipal duty with national subsidy, kept them free by law including reservations and inter-library loans, and municipalities compete on quality, with the flagship in Helsinki placed opposite parliament as a statement.

Preconditions

• Near-universal literacy and a reading culture that predates the statute
• Municipal finance strong enough to fund a non-mandatory-feeling service
• A language community small enough that the state subsidises publishing too

Where else it has been used: The Nordic neighbours run the same model at slightly lower intensity. Elsewhere the statutory free-of-charge rule is the part that erodes first, and with it the usage.

The move, and what it needed

Finland's tripartite system funded study leave for experienced workers out of unemployment-insurance contributions, administered by the Employment Fund; the Orpo government then abolished it to cut contributions and public spending, and Parliament passed the repeal in May 2024.

Preconditions

• An earnings-related social insurance fund able to carry an education benefit alongside unemployment cover
• Employer acceptance of statutory study leave, through tripartite bargaining
• A political majority willing to keep paying for it when fiscal consolidation became the priority

Where else it has been used: Other Nordic states have study-leave income support. Finland's abolition shows how a contribution-funded benefit with no constituency outside its users can be dropped in one budget round.

The move, and what it needed

The state put the cost of protection on construction itself: the Rescue Act obliges owners of large residential and workplace buildings to build a shelter, which peacetime uses as storage, car parks or sports halls on condition it can be cleared within 72 hours.

Preconditions

• A threat perception shared across parties since the Second World War
• A building code and permit inspection that enforce the duty before construction
• Housing built mostly as concrete multi-storey blocks

Where else it has been used: Switzerland runs the same building duty. Germany and Sweden let theirs lapse after 1990 and are now rebuilding from a smaller stock.

The move, and what it needed

Rather than build a new aid channel, the government gave its innovation agency new grant instruments and money by supplementary budget, so applications could open within days through an existing online system.

Preconditions

• An agency already running an online grant system that reached most SMEs
• Parliament able to pass a supplementary budget within days
• Tolerance for weaker screening than normal R&D funding

Where else it has been used: Several countries used existing enterprise agencies for 2020 grants; the Finnish case shows the trade between speed and targeting when the agency's purpose is innovation, not relief.

The move, and what it needed

The state rail administration and the City of Vantaa cofunded an airport loop tied to new housing zoned along the line; when the cost forecast rose before construction, the ministry renegotiated the cost split and kept the start date, then absorbed a further overrun from ground contamination at the airport.

Preconditions

• A municipality willing to share capital cost in exchange for land-use value along the line
• A state budget able to absorb an overrun on a single project without stopping it
• Airport ground conditions that were not fully surveyed before tunnelling