The Future of Democracy and Welfare in a Transforming Europe: Four Scenarios of Europe in 2040
Anna Björk, Aleksi Neuvonen and Nour Attalla
Europe is currently in a transitional period. The ongoing post-industrial economic and technological transformation is weakening our established societal, political, and cultural structures. Meanwhile, key 21st-century challenges including climate change, socio-economic inequalities, and external authoritarian pressure are creating instability across the continent.
The scenarios of the paper were created as a synthesis of the Finnish BIBU research project (2017-22), which studies the impact of the socio-economic transformation on our political systems, and responses to it. A report in Finnish focusing on the future of the Finnish welfare state and democracy was published alongside this volume.