Finnish Parliament Research Articles

Forging autonomy in a unitary state: The Åland Islands in Finland

As one of the most stable unitary states in the world, Finland has largely been overlooked in the literature on multi-level political systems. However, this categorisation of Finland neglects the substantial autonomy that has been fought for, and accorded to, the Swedish-speaking Aland Islands over the twentieth century. Aland is the only province that has been granted significant legislative powers vis-a-vis the Autonomy Act (1921) and thereby constitutes a federalised arrangement. It possesses its own regional assembly and regional executive with exclusive powers in the fields of education, health, culture, industry and policing and elects a single representative to the Finnish Parliament. As the Aland party system diverges significantly from Finland’s (Finnish parties do not compete on the island), this has led to a vertical disconnect between the Finnish and Aland governments. This article will explore the struggles for, and attainment of, autonomy for the Aland Islands within the centralised Finnish state, and the effects of this on intergovernmental relations.

Mortality in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma and Exfoliative Glaucoma

To study mortality among unselected Finnish patients with either primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) or exfoliative glaucoma (EG) after a minimum follow-up of 7 years after enrollment. A total of 344 patients with POAG and 155 patients with EG had received free medication for the treatment of glaucoma from the Finnish National Social Insurance Institution (FSII). The FSII operates national health insurance, which is compulsory for all Finnish citizens. To be granted free medication, the patient has to file an application with a certificate from an ophthalmologist. If the predefined criteria for glaucoma specified by the Finnish Parliament are met, full reimbursement for glaucoma medications is granted and the patient is listed in the registry of FSII. We reviewed the records of 519 consecutive patients who had been diagnosed with glaucoma and to whom free medication had been granted between June 2004 and December 2005. Patients with acute glaucoma or secondary glaucoma were excluded. Those with open angles were classified into POAG or EG. The quality of the ophthalmologists' records was high. The Finnish Population Registry, a governmental institute, provided information on those patients who had died before January 2013. At enrollment, the groups with POAG and EG were comparable as regards sex: 66% female with POAG and 68% with EG. The patients with POAG were younger (median 68 years) than those with EG (median 74 years). By January 2013, 59 patients with POAG and 48 with EG had died. At death, the patients with POAG were younger (median 81.8 years) than those with EG (87.9 years). In both groups, the women lived longer than the men, but among patients with POAG, women and men died at a younger age than those with EG. As has been reported previously, life expectancy of patients with EG was longer when compared to those with POAG. Higher death rate among patients with EG is explained by higher median age at baseline.

Lonely Riders and Cooperation Networks: Member of Parliaments’ Private Motions in the Finnish Parliament 1999–2010

AbstractMembers’ of Parliament (MP) private motions in the Finnish parliament Eduskunta are explored. During 1999–2010, the Finnish MPs introduced nearly 20,000 motions, from which 75% turned out to be budget amendments while legislative motions constituted some 10%. Roughly half were single signer motions while the rest were sponsored by various MP combinations. Only few motions were processed in committees and even fewer got accepted. A growing amount of party motions sponsored by one party group were found. Motions sponsored by MPs from the same electoral district were found as well. A handful of motions sponsored by the absolute majority of Eduskunta were also found. Comparing the sponsor networks with the Swedish parliament, where the MPs tend to cooperate with their group comrades, reveals the Finnish MPs cooperating significantly more often over the party lines. While analyses of plenary voting primarily divide the Finnish MPs into government and opposition blocs the analysis of private motions results in a completely different pattern of cooperation. In Eduskunta matters are initiated somewhat freely while at the stage of decision party discipline steps in.

National piety: Religious equality, freedom of religion and national identity in Finnish political discourse

This paper analyses the legislative discourse regarding a Members' Initiative to enact a law which was discussed in the Finnish parliament in 2006 and which proposed changes to the constitution and several laws, the purpose of which was to balance the privileged position that the Lutheran Church of Finland enjoys. The author uses critical discourse analysis to examine four different discourses emerging from the debate: inequality of religions in the eyes of the law; the ‘completeness’ of the freedom of religion in Finland; the justified hegemony of the ‘folk church’; and the church as a value base in a pluralising world. He argues that the discursive struggle between the different positions is a struggle between ‘minimalist’ and ‘maximalist’ definitions of freedom of religion and that the discussion represents a case of ‘national piety’, a conflation of discourses of religious equality, freedom of religion and national identity that reproduces the status quo.

The Euro Crisis and Its Constitutional Consequences for Finland: Is There Room for National Politics in EU Decision-Making?

Economic crisis, constitutional crisis – Finnish constitutional requirements and solutions – National parliaments' European constitutional function – Finnish parliament's rights – Development of economic and monetary union – Economic and monetary union and development of it as the ‘Union matter’ in Finland – Stabilisation – European Financial Stability Facility – European Stability Mechanism – Economic governance – National, European, political, constitutional

Government vs opposition voting in the Finnish parliament Eduskunta since World War II

In a parliamentary system it is by definition justified to assume the government parties voting almost always in a unitary manner in plenary votes. In a multiparty system it is, however, hard to predict how the opposition groups vote. Few studies analysing government-opposition voting in the Finnish parliament Eduskunta were published during the 1960s and 1970s. This study provides similar analyses regarding the parliamentary years of 1991-2012. Combined the studies provide an insight into the government-opposition relations since World War II. The results show that before the 1990s the government-opposition division in plenary votes appeared rather clear and the political party groups’ positions followed the traditional left-right dimension. Since the 1990s, the government-opposition division has become greater. The governing coalition acts almost as a bloc while the opposition groups are divided into moderate and hard opposition. The opposition groups, however, appear in a more or less random order. Consequently, since the 1990s the left-right dimension has disappeared with respect to plenary voting.

Nuclear power at the crossroads of liberalised electricity markets and CO2 mitigation – Case Finland

Nuclear energy policy is in turmoil in many Western European countries after the Fukushima accident in March 2011. We review the nuclear energy policies in European countries with emphasis on recent changes. Differences in the energy policies of different EU country groups have become more pronounced, contrary to the EU goal of “speaking with one voice” in energy issues. Since the beginning of European and US electricity market liberalisation in the 1990s, it has often been claimed that nuclear power is not competitive in liberalised electricity markets. We challenge this statement with the example of Finland, which is part of the liberalised Nordic market since the mid-1990s. One nuclear plant is currently under construction and two new nuclear power plants, out of three applications, were recently approved by the Finnish Parliament. The retirement of existing fossil fuel plants and old nuclear power plants will cause increased net import needs, which is in contradiction with the Government targets. By the year 2030, the need for additional new capacity will be 6 GW. This situation is by no means unique to Finland, but rather is set to emerge throughout Europe.

Risk‐Informed Regulation and Safety Management of Nuclear Power Plants—On the Prevention of Severe Accidents

There are four operating nuclear power plant (NPP) units in Finland. The Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) power company has two 840 MWe BWR units supplied by Asea-Atom at the Olkiluoto site. The Fortum corporation (formerly IVO) has two 500 MWe VVER 440/213 units at the Loviisa site. In addition, a 1600 MWe European Pressurized Water Reactor supplied by AREVA NP (formerly the Framatome ANP--Siemens AG Consortium) is under construction at the Olkiluoto site. Recently, the Finnish Parliament ratified the government Decision in Principle that the utilities' applications to build two new NPP units are in line with the total good of the society. The Finnish utilities, Fenno power company, and TVO company are in progress of qualifying the type of the new nuclear builds. In Finland, risk-informed applications are formally integrated in the regulatory process of NPPs that are already in the early design phase and these are to run through the construction and operation phases all through the entire plant service time. A plant-specific full-scope probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) is required for each NPP. PRAs shall cover internal events, area events (fires, floods), and external events such as harsh weather conditions and seismic events in all operating modes. Special attention is devoted to the use of various risk-informed PRA applications in the licensing of Olkiluoto 3 NPP.

The Transnational Idea of University Autonomy and the Reform of the Finnish Universities Act

In 2009, the Finnish parliament passed a new Universities Act that aimed to strengthen the institutional autonomy of the country's universities. But why and how did the idea of autonomy come to frame the reform agenda in the overt way it did? In analysing a sample of authoritative policy and strategy papers by the key stakeholders in the higher education policy fields at the European level and in Finland, the author argues that a conceptual shift took place at the turn of the millennium. This was based on managerial values and top-down organization that emphasized the potential of universities to operate on the education market as would any enterprise. But the Finnish higher education policy agenda was not simply downloaded from supranational actors; parts of the Finnish Higher Education establishment had long been active in promoting the novel idea of autonomy at both national and European forums, thereby making the process of ideological transformation truly transnational.

Socio‐Technical Challenges of Finland's Nuclear Waste Policy: Discussion of the Techno‐Scientific Community on the Geological Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel

AbstractThe objective of the paper is to study different views on the future challenges that the geological disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) will encounter. We investigate how engineers, natural scientists, representatives of the nuclear industry, regulators, and laypersons from non‐governmental organizations perceive the remaining socio‐technical challenges for implementing geological disposal by examining discussions in a professional magazine covering nuclear waste management issues. The paper focuses on the post‐site selection phase associated with the planned disposal facility at Olkiluoto in Finland. This phase (between 1999 and 2010) represents the period after the nuclear waste management company Posiva submitted the Decision‐in‐Principle (DiP) application for the final disposal facility for SNF in 1999 and the ratification of the DiP regarding the final disposal of SNF by the Finnish Parliament in May 2001. The paper provides a theoretical elaboration of the term socio‐technical that will lay the foundation for empirical analysis as well as a brief overview of the state of affairs regarding the Finnish SNF management program. Results show that market actors were clearly the most active players in defining and discussing final disposal. Qualitative analysis identified six kinds of socio‐technical challenges: socio‐technical regime challenges, social acceptance challenges, knowledge challenges, safety challenges, construction challenges, and flexibility challenges.

The Vodka Sea: Comparative History of Spirits Smuggling in the Baltic Sea

This paper examines the spirits smuggling in the Baltic Sea region in the inter-war period. On 1 June 1919 the Finnish Parliament passed the Prohibition Act forbidding the production, transportation, sale, and storage of alcohol which activated spirits smuggling to Finland. Large-scale spirits smuggling was arranged during Prohibition by criminal organizations through international networks. Mostly cheap German liquor was delivered to Nordic countries and to the United States. The representatives of organized crime in the Baltic Sea region became rich fast during Prohibition thanks to limits set by countries. Contemporary drug smuggling and spirits smuggling are comparable due to similar organizational structure and modus operandi.

Is pharmaceutical policy evidence-informed? A case of the deregulation process of nicotine replacement therapy products in Finland

ObjectiveThis qualitative study aims to identify the key dimensions of the political argumentation in the debate leading up to the deregulation of nicotine replacement therapy products (NRT) in Finland in 2006. The deregulation was introduced by the Amendment of larger package of changes in medical legislation prepared in 2005. MethodsAll publicly available documents of the legislative process introducing NRT deregulation and interviews of 12 Members of Finnish Parliament conducted in spring 2006 were analyzed by inductive content analysis. ResultsNRT deregulation was introduced to decision-makers as a safe intervention to increase smoking cessation and thus provide public health benefits. However, a whole variety of other features were brought into debate: NRT characteristics, principle change in prevailing medical legislation, use of evidence and the political process. Finally, the expected public health benefits of the decision were not directly informed by any evidence. ConclusionsThis study provides an example of the use of public health benefits as justification for decision-making. However, the decision can include other aspects, less brought up in its preparation stage. Our study addresses the need for policymakers to critically evaluate the evidence, its suitability in decision-making context and raise awareness of the principles of evidence-informed policy-making.

Emancipation Through Sports: Doctors and the Rise of the Female Body in Finland c.1900–1920

While the cultural history of body and sports have become well-established fields of historical studies since the 1980s, it has been demonstrated that medical practice has functioned as a moral discourse which produces a regulation of the female body. It has been realised that theories (e.g. of ‘degeneration’) concerning the functioning of the human body bore a great significance to planning and defining the programmes of physical education, gymnastics and sports in the spirit of muscular nationalism. Doctors studying human physiology and training were eager to control not only the female body but also the mind of a gymnast or a sportswoman. This is what happened also in Finland from the late nineteenth century, when the emancipation of women started there. In pace with the demands of educational opportunities and suffrage – gained in 1906 with the establishment of the Finnish one-chamber Parliament – women started to yearn for their own kind of physical exercise, to organise in gymnastic clubs and finally in the 1900s–1910s to argue for a respectable role in the Finnish sports movement. My contribution analyses the dialogue between doctors and influential female organisers of gymnastics and sports over what and how the female body could perform in sports. It should throw light on the ways expert knowledge of medical authorities clashed or compromised with women's self-definition of their body and its functions, which they thought they knew better.

Increasing nuclear power at liberalised energy markets- case Finland

Several Finnish projections for future electricity demand and the need for peak load capacity indicate a demand growth of about 2 GW from the present to the year 2030. The retirement of existing fossil fuel plants and old nuclear power plants will cause increased net import needs during 2020's, even when assuming additional energy efficiency measures and the commissioning of two new nuclear power plants recently approved by the Finnish Parliament. By the year 2030, the need for additional new capacity will be about 6 GW. The increased dependence on import is in contradiction with the official Government targets. This situation is not unique to Finland, but rather is likely to be the case in many other European countries as well. Both the energy company Fortum and energy-intensive industry in Finland see nuclear energy as a viable future generation technology. We describe the « Mankala » concept which is successfully used to build new nuclear capacity at liberalised electricity market in Finland.

Introducing Class Actions in Finland - Lawmaking Without Economic Analysis

Finnish Parliament accepted in February 2007 a new law on class actions (literally group actions), which entered into force 1 October, 2008. The legislative process was particularly slow. Finland has been preparing a law on class actions since the early 1990s and this was - depending on the criteria of counting - the fourth try. Some fifteen years ago the idea of class actions was something new in Europe. Time passes quickly however, and the new Finnish law cannot be described as radical by any meaning of the word. Many European countries have changed their existing procedural codes and enacted new laws to make class action litigation possible. The new Finnish class action law differs from the mainstream in fundamentally limiting its scope of application. Although the law is titled as being a general law on class actions, it only applies to consumer cases where the government-funded Consumer Ombudsman is acting as the lead counsel. This was not the case in the beginning. Years ago, the first law proposals had much broader scope of application but as the lobbying between potential defendants (the industry) and plaintiffs (consumer agencies etc.) became polarized, it became evident that there can be either a major compromise or no law at all. This article analyses the Finnish lawmaking process from comparative and economic policy viewpoints. First, the article discusses how did the Finnish legislative process end up with a certain outcome. It is argue that neither well-founded economic nor empirical arguments had any relevant role. Instead, partisan claims on class action cases in the United States and their potential implications to companies were used as a strong argument to restrict the law's scope of application. The official preparatory documents did not present any study on experiences from the United States. There was non-partisan empirical evidence of the use of class actions only from Sweden. Second, this article compares the claims presented in the Finnish lawmaking process to studies and legislative work made in other countries. The article concludes that the most of the claims were based on partisan opinions, not on well-founded studies. The examples of other Nordic countries however show that there is nothing uncommon in implementing class actions in a Northern European legal system. Misuse of class actions is not likely due to e.g. fundamental differences in the substance of accident law and the rules regarding the indemnification of legal costs in litigation. Third, this article argues that the main reason why the Finnish class action law failed was the dynamics of the legislative process. The idea of reaching a consensus in preparatory work before a law is submitted to the parliament means that if certain interest groups are able to form a strong opposition, the law may never enter the parliament no matter of the substantial arguments. The result is that an unknown number of cases are not litigated at all in Finland because the scope of application of the law is restricted. Regulatory authorities have no resources to provide as extensive preventive threat as would a complementary private mechanism.

The Changing Role and Contribution of Social Science to Nuclear Waste Management in Finland

This article explores both the social and political usage of social science research and its effectiveness, as perceived by experts, in the process of planning and decision-making in the context of Finnish nuclear waste management. The argument is that public participation in the process is important, but to reach some kind of public acceptability the actors in charge of “solving” the nuclear waste problem have to govern the societal process and respond to the claims and the needs of the public. This requires the integration of social science research into the process responsible for developing the nuclear waste management model. In trying to understand the uniquely positive nuclear waste siting decision by the Eurajoki municipal council in January 2000, and the decision-in-principle ratified by the Finnish Parliament in May 2001, one has to pay close attention to the bureaucratic processes underlying those decisions. Some kind of public consent, contentment or acceptability was reached in those long and skilful bureaucratic processes, involving both deliberative techniques and a responsive use of social science. A more general reflection underpinning the study concerns the deepening relationship between science and politics, including the growing bureaucratic ethos of science, the social responsibility of science, the increasing need to control the quality of different societal processes, and the legitimization of societal and political aims.

Geoscience and high-level nuclear waste disposal: the Nordic scene

In Norden, two countries, Sweden and Finland, are actively engaged in site investigations for the location of deep repositories for spent nuclear fuel from powerproducing nuclear reactors. These investigations are being carried out in crystalline rocks of the Fennoscandian Shield. In Sweden, a long history of site selection has led to the identification and investigation of two sites, Forsmark and Laxemar/Simpevarp, based on a strategy of combining favourable bedrock with consent by the local population. Surface-based geoscientific investigations of the two candidates, with extensive deep drilling, are now drawing to a close. A proposal as to which of the sites would be most suitable for the development of a deep repository will be submitted to the governmental regulatory authorities in 2009. In Finland, the site selection process was shorter and less politically controversial, and led to a Decision in Principle by the Finnish parliament, in May 2001, to develop a deep repository at the Olkiluoto site. The access tunnel to an underground rock characterisation facility at 400-500 m depth is at present under construction, accompanied by extensive geoscientific investigations in the subsurface. An application for a construction licence for a deep repository will be submitted in 2012. Although all sites are located in Precambrian crystalline rocks, the Swedish sites both lie in relatively homogeneous granitic rocks, whilst the Finnish site is located in an heterogeneous migmatite complex. The Nordic approach to high-level nuclear waste disposal in crystalline rock will be the theme of a Topical Symposium at the 33rd International Geological Congress at Oslo, in August 2008, and the three sites mentioned above will be the focus of Congress Excursion no. 14.

INTRODUCTION: REPRESENTATION AND INCLUSION

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. The Finnish parliament produced an informative website called ‘Centenary of Women's full political rights in Finland’ which was linked to the website celebrating 100 years of democracy in Finland. See http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/demo.htm. 2. See website ‘Basic reading in US Democracy’, available at http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/demo.htm. 3. Queen Elizabeth of Romania, better known as the author Carmen Sylva, for instance, had much sympathy with feminism and stimulated higher education for women in Romania, but drew the line where political rights were concerned, as expressed in a letter to her friend the Empress of Austria/Hungary: ‘[N]ature has not given us male strength nor male logic – of course female labour should be better paid – but political rights seem quite unnecessary to me.’ (Sylva 1916 Sylva, Carmen. 1916. Briefe einer einsamen Königin, Munchen: Braun und Schneider. [Google Scholar]).

Improving GPs’ skills and competencies in child psychiatry

Concerned at the poor availability of psychiatric services for children and adolescents, the Finnish Parliament allocated extra funds for their development during 2000 and 2001. With this subsidy, a project was set underway to update general practitioners’ (GPs’) skills and knowledge in child psychiatry. The problem-based learning (PBL) method was used, combined with multidisciplinary teamwork. The present paper reports on changes Finnish GPs’ perceptions of their knowledge and skills in child psychiatry over a 1-year period. The study sample comprised 761 physicians working in health centres in the area of Tampere University Hospital, with a catchment population of one million. GPs’ self-assessments of their skills in child psychiatry in 16 areas were collected by postal questionnaire in 2000 and 2001. The response rates were 66.1% and 57.1%, respectively. Those who answered in both years were included in the analysis (n=371). Some GPs felt that their skills and competencies had improved and some that they had declined, while the majority reported no changes. According to logistic regression analysis, the only factor explaining a marked positive change was participation in child psychiatric training. In two areas of competence, GPs who had attended child psychiatric training rated their skills as significantly better than those who had not attended such training. We conclude that the effect of this undertaking was modest when implemented as a one-off training event.

The Planned Fifth Nuclear Reactor in Finland, and its Institutional Framework

The institutional framework and the role of the companies are of key importance in considering an investment in new nuclear capacity in a country. In Finland, Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) is a privately owned power company, which supplies electricity to its shareholders at cost. TVO received 24.5.2002 a positive decision in principle from the Finnish Parliament, which enables the construction process of a new nuclear unit. In this paper the arguments for more nuclear power and cost comparison of power generation are described. Also the capacity in Finland and Scandinavia, the need of new power plants and the political decision process of a new nuclear unit are discussed. One argument of TVO's application was the need of competitive and CO2 free generating capacity. The higher than expected growth of electricity consumption, the rise of electricity price and the increase in carbon dioxide emissions have made these arguments even more valid.