Party Strategies and Foreign Policy: The Case of Finland, I955-63

Abstract

The author tries to explain why the foreign policy debate in the party press in Finland, 1955-63, actually took the form it did. The scheme of analysis developed by Gunnar Sjöblom for party strategies in a multiparty system is used as a theoretical frame of reference and is applied to a material consisting of editorials in 19 party papers in connection with debates on 9 foreign policy situations. As to the value systems of parties, the author makes a distinction between three foreign policy approaches: (1) lim itative, (2) adaptive, and (3) augmentative interpretations. A quantitative analysis suggests that the parties put forward their interpretations in accordance with a pattern which corresponds to the ideological rankings of parties. This is followed by an analysis of how the parties in their propaganda have tried to advance the vote maxima tion goal and the maximation of parliamentary influence goal, and by discussions of how the parties have solved conflicts between strategic goals and programme goals in different types of situations.