Late last year, news circulated that freshly minted Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin, a thirty-four-year old Social Democrat, wanted to reduce the working week to four days and thirty hours. The plan quickly garnered international attention — Finland, it seemed, was yet again setting the standard for ambitious progressive reforms.

Marin rushed to clarify that the proposal was her own, not that of her center-left government — but the episode nonetheless highlighted the continuing appeal of the Finnish model, a sort of shining city on the hill for those outside the Nordic countries.

Often, discussions about the Finnish model turn into a debate about whether Finland is in fact socialist. The latest article to enter the fray was a December New York Times op-ed by Anu Partanen and her husband Trevor Corson. Partanen is a seasoned Finland hand in the US press, often called on to explain the particularities of the Nordic welfare states to US audiences. In the article the two argue that, far from a socialist redoubt, Finland is a “capitalist paradise” — surely balm to many liberals in the United States and right-wingers in Europe who wish to claim the welfare state’s accomplishments without giving in to the Left.