ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses Finland's emergence from the First World War and the civil war of 1918 as an independent republic with universal suffrage and a municipal democracy. Building new state infrastructure and other public services resulted in a perceived increase in state expenditure that was examined with anxiety by liberal scholars and politicians. In Finland and elsewhere, there were several initiatives for a return to the classical liberal order that had existed before the First World War, but not everyone subscribed to the same prognosis. For many liberals, it did not seem realistic to imagine a return to the old order, and therefore the Finnish nation could only fund the expansion of the state and increase in material welfare by growing national production. The old order of classical liberalism and agrarian conservatism was challenged by social liberal and communist growth conceptions.
