Finland

Finland's governance produced the world's most admired education system through a counterintuitive strategy: eliminating standardised testing, granting teachers extraordinary autonomy, and requiring master's degrees for all educators — reforms implemented in the 1970s that took decades to produce the PISA results that made Finland famous. NATO membership in 2023, ending 75 years of military non-alignment, was driven by the same pragmatic consensus that characterises Finnish governance: when the security environment changed (Russia's invasion of Ukraine), the political system reoriented within weeks. Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia — the EU's longest — giving it security considerations that shape every policy domain. The economy transitioned from Nokia-dependent (at peak, Nokia represented 4% of Finnish GDP) to diversified technology, forestry, and clean energy. The political system operates through broad coalition governments and strong institutional trust — Finns consistently rank among the world's highest in government trust surveys.