- bearer for liberal democracy is even more crucial. in my view, the best and most effective way to defend liberal democracy is simply by finding and enacting such policies that solve practical problems of our citizens – be they related to employment, environment, immigration, climate change, or other things. we certainly need bolder joint efforts to steer our societies towards a more sustainable future. many thanks for your attention. 1 “ der zustand des geldwesens eines volkes ist ein symptom aller seiner zustande. " 2 timo soini, populismi – politiikkaa ja poltinmerkki. yleisen valtio - opin pro gradu - tutkielma. helsingin yliopisto, valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta, huhtikuu 1988. the university of helsinki. 3 iversen – soskice, democracy and prosperity reinventing capitalism through a turbulent century, princeton university press 2019, p. 20. 5 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches 4 paul collier, ” the future of capitalism ” and raghu rajan “ the third pillar ”. 6 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches

and the other nordic countries. in the nordic countries, support for populist parties has ranged between 15 – 20 percent in recent years. in finland, the ( true ) finns party has scored between 17 – 19 percent of the vote in the last three national elections in 2011 – 19. so why is it so that even the “ happiest people in the world ” are so prone to populist temptations? as mentioned, the combination of economic insecurity and threats to national identity appear to trigger populist surges. this is amplified if the political system fails to address citizens ’ concerns. in fact, the economic argument about populism seems to be as much about distribution as aggregate growth – a favourable macro - economic development may mask big differences across different groups. the distributional impacts of a key driver of today ’ s changes – especially technological development, such phenomena as artificial intelligence, automatization, digitalisation, robotics – have been widely recognised for some time. initially, technological development mainly crowded out low - skilled labour. but more recently, with the latest advances in artificial intelligence, it is many medium - skilled jobs that are being threatened, thus placing an even bigger premium on high - skilled jobs and education. one very relevant and realistic recent book that relate to populism is by torben iversen and david soskice called democracy and prosperity – reinventing capitalism through a turbulent century. they refute the crisis of democracy, and rather call the present state of affairs as a challenge for democracy. as comparative or international political economists, their point of departure is the ongoing economic transformation into a fully - fledged knowledge economy, which is very skill - intensive. for them, the question is how the majority of the people – or voters – can feel that they have a place, stake and future for their children in the society. the key intervening variable is education. not primarily as a civilizational project, but rather as a way of maintaining one ’ position in the reasonable prosperous middle class, or at least keeping up the aspiration for one ’ s children. they underline the ‘ aspirational vote ’ of the middle class. iversen and soskice also counter the argument that states are powerless in the face of international capitalism. for them, location matters, and it is the clusters of industries that drive the economy and the thriving cities that attract people. again, education and training are critical to keep the people on board. and the democratic