Government and Politics
Finland Table of Contents
SINCE THE ESTABLISHMENT of its present system of government in 1919,
Finland has been one of the more fortunate members of the Western
community of democratic nations. Compared with other European states,
the country was only moderately affected by the political turmoil of the
interwar period; it passed through World War II relatively unscathed;
and, although right on the line that divided Europe into two hostile
blocs after the second half of the 1940s, it survived as an independent
nation with its democratic institutions intact.
This enviable record was achieved against formidable odds. Although
the constitutional basis of their government grew out of
long-established institutions, Finns had never been fully free to govern
themselves until late 1917 when they achieved national independence.
Swedish and Russian rulers had always ultimately determined their
affairs. Finnish society was also marked by deep fissures that became
deeper after the brief civil war (1918), which left scars that needed
several generations to heal. In addition to class and political
divisions, the country also had to contend with regional and linguistic
differences. These problems were eventually surmounted, and by the 1980s
the watchword in Finnish politics was consensus.
A skillfully constructed system of government allowed Finns to manage
their affairs with the participation of all social groups (although
there were some serious lapses in the interwar period). Checks and
balances, built into a system of modified separation of powers, enabled
the government to function democratically and protected the basic rights
of all citizens. The 200-member parliament, the Eduskunta, elected by
popular vote, was sovereign by virtue of its representing the Finnish
people. An elected president wielded supreme executive power and
determined foreign policy. Although not responsible politically to the
Eduskunta, the president could carry out many of his functions only
through a cabinet government, the Council of State, which was dependent
upon the support of the Eduskunta. An independent judiciary, assisted by
two legal officials with broad independent powers--the chancellor of
justice and the parliamentary ombudsman--ensured that government
institutions adhered to the law.
Working within this system during the 1980s were a variety of
political parties, an average of about a dozen, ranging from sect-like
groups to large well-established parties, the counterparts of which were
to be found all over Western Europe. The socialist wing consisted of a
deeply split communist movement and a moderate Finnish Social Democratic
Party that by the late 1980s was a preeminent governing party. The
center was occupied by an agrarian party, the Center Party, which had
been in government almost continuously until 1987; the Swedish People's
Party; and a formerly right-wing protest party, the Finnish Rural Party.
The right was dominated by the National Coalition Party, which was
fairly moderate in its conservatism. In the 1970s and the 1980s, the
mainstream parties, and even a good part of the Communist Party of
Finland, had moved toward the center, and the political spectrum as a
whole was slightly more to the right than it had been in previous
decades.
A constitutional system that was conservative in nature had allowed
these parties to work together, yet within constraints that permitted no
single group to usurp the rights of another. Nevertheless, the variety
of parties had made it very difficult to put together coalitions that
could attain the strict qualified majorities needed to effect
fundamental changes. Only since the second half of the 1960s had it been
possible, though at times difficult, to find a broad enough multiparty
consensus.
Powerful interest groups were also involved in Finnish politics, most
noticeably in the negotiation and the realization of biannual income
policy settlements that, since the late 1960s, had affected most Finnish
wage-earners. Interest groups initially negotiated the terms of a new
wage agreement; then it was, in effect, ratified by coalitions of
parties in government; and finally the Eduskunta passed the social and
economic legislation that underlay it. Some observers complained that
government's role had become overly passive in this process and that the
preeminence of consensus actually meant that Finnish politics offered
the populace no real alternatives. Yet most Finns, remembering earlier
years of industrial strife and poverty, preferred the new means of
managing public affairs.
There was also broad agreement about Finnish foreign policy. The
country was threatened with extinction as an independent nation after
World War II, but presidents Juho Paasikivi and Urho Kekkonen, both
masters of realpolitik, led their countrymen to a new relationship with
the Soviet Union. The core of this relationship was Finland's guarantee
to the Soviet Union that its northeastern border region was militarily
secure. Controversial as the so-called Paasikivi-Kekkonen Line was
initially, by the 1980s the vast majority of Finns approved of the way
Finland dealt with its large neighbor and were well aware, too, of the
trade advantages the special relationship had brought to their country.
Working in tandem with good Finnish-Soviet relations was the policy
of active and peaceful neutrality, the backbone of Finnish foreign
policy. Advocating, as a neutral state, the settlement of disputes
through peaceful, legal means was a role Finns adopted willingly. A high
point of this policy was the part the country played in planning and in
hosting the 1975 Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Another facet of active neutrality was a committed membership in the
United Nations, most notably in the organization's peacekeeping forces.
CONSTITUTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
Constitutional Development
The Constitution
GOVERNMENTAL
INSTITUTIONS
Legislature
President
Council of State
Legal System
Civil Service
Provincial
Administration
Local Administration
Electoral System
Aland Islands
POLITICAL DYNAMICS
The Social Democratic
Party
The Center Party
The National
Coalition Party
The Communist Party
The Swedish People's
Party
Smaller Parties and
the Greens
Interest Groups
FOREIGN RELATIONS
For more information about the government, see
Facts
about Finland.
