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The 2008 economic crisis and its aftermath have created opportunities for institutional actors to formulate and implement neoliberal reforms and policies. In this article, we analyse a recent ordoliberal policy measure of the Finnish government—namely, the Competitiveness Pact—and related legislative measures. Ordoliberalism, a variant of neoliberalism, entails a strong state which aims to protect the economy from interfering influences. The government's main objective was to increase the competitiveness of the Finnish economy by lowering labour costs. However, the competitiveness measures caused a conflict between the government and labour market parties. As the measures mainly targeted the feminized public sector, they had clear gendered impacts that became central to the struggle between the government and trade unions. We utilize critical discourse analysis as a methodology to study affective institutional work and ordoliberal governance in parliamentary discussions on these measures. Our results show that gender equality was marginalized and considered a threatening issue for the ordoliberal regime. The Pact was also the government's attempt to make institutional changes to the norms and relations of the corporatist system, as the government assumed the leading role by setting demands for the labour market parties to fulfil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subject and purpose of work: This article analyzes the factors depicted in the literature as essential for the emergence of far-right parties and assesses the importance of unemployment, immigration and political establishments in the failures of the far-right wing parties in Sweden and Finland in early 2000s. Materials and methods: Multi-methods approach is used in this study including case studies and a novel technique based on Boolean algebra. Results: The findings of this paper lead to the conclusion that the correlation between unemployment rates and the electoral strength of far-right parties is weak and does not support simplistic thesis such as high unemployment leads to extremism. Moreover, despite objectively favorable conditions in terms of high immigration rates, the presence of non-European immigrants in a country does not in itself explain the emergence of far-right parties. Conclusions: The study points to the importance of political factors such as the differences between the mainstream parties and tackling the immigration issue by the Liberal Party in Sweden and the wide ideological span of the coalition government and the role of Finland's special relationship with the USSR that militated against the emergence of far-right parties in these countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Surveys generally overestimate the overall level of voter turnout in elections due to both the misreporting of voting and nonresponse. It is sometimes argued that socioeconomic differences in turnout are exaggerated in surveys because social desirability has a more pronounced effect on eligible voters in more advantaged socioeconomic positions. However, the contribution of nonresponse bias has not been taken into consideration in these assessments. Using a register-linked survey with information on the education, occupational social class, income, and voting in the 2015 Finnish parliamentary elections of both respondents and nonrespondents, this study shows that nonresponse bias leads to not only a larger overestimation of the overall level of turnout than social desirability, but also an underestimation of educational, social class, and income-related differences in the propensity to vote. Socioeconomic differences in the probability of voting in register-based data were at least two-thirds larger than differences obtained when using standard survey techniques. This finding implies that socioeconomic inequality in electoral participation is a more pressing social problem than previous evidence might indicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a form of lifestyle blogging where women blog about their homes and everyday lives. In these homing blogs, self-representations are characteristically spatially demarcated within the private sphere of the home. As these repeated representations of women in their homes take place in the public space of the internet, homing blogs work towards naturalizing the home as a women’s sphere. Written and commented on mostly by other women, homing blogs represent a feminine form of self-expression and communication that functions as a discursive expression of ongoing social, economic, and cultural changes in affluent Western societies. In this article, Finnish versions of these homing blogs are analysed in the cultural and political context of contemporary Finland, and discussed as a form of intimate publics that reverses the gender politics of other historical, semi-public spaces for the exercise of women’s agency, such as the salon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finland’s Right to Return policy for Ingrian Finns (1990-2010) presented Russian and Estonian citizens who qualified as having Finnish ancestry the legal means to resettle in Finland. The policy was initially driven by Finnish President Mauno Koivisto, who spoke publicly of his belief that the Ingrian Finnish minority in Russia was Finnish because it was Lutheran rather than Orthodox. However, Finnish politicians increasingly abandoned the view of a common Lutheran identity between Ingrian Finns and Finland, and shifted the discussion to language, ancestry and historical memory, which were used to both endorse and disendorse Ingrian Finns’ Finnishness. We argue that the disappearance of religion from the Right to Return discourse was a strategic - if not necessarily conscious - choice that emphasized the more primordial aspects of Finnish identity (and the Ingrian Finns’ lack of those), which in turn enabled stricter restrictions and, ultimately, the discontinuation of the policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the effects of Bill HE 72/2016 (‘Act on the Provision and Reception of International Assistance’), which was introduced in spring 2016 by the incumbent Finnish Government. The Bill inducts notable changes to Finland’s policy on armed activities. Due to legislative constraints, the State was previously almost completely incapable of both requesting and delivering international help that amounted to armed measures. Bill HE 72/2016 aims to drastically change this position, and thus enables a wide range of armed activities. While a legislative change is warranted, the effects of the Bill may be far more far-stretching than anticipated by its drafters. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to examine if the Bill manages to properly regulate the new Finnish position on armed measures, and what improvements it could have benefitted from. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major terrorist attacks in Western countries during the last fifteen years have had consequences way beyond the countries in which they have happened. The article provides a primary source–based account of the development of counterterrorism policy in Finland, which is one of those countries with a low national threat level. The article demonstrates the significant role that international pressure, through obligations, recommendations, and social learning, plays in developing national counterterrorist policies. The article calls also into question whether the pressure to comply with international pressure always contributes toward sound national counterterrorism policies that foster political resilience to terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the legal aspects of biobanking in Finland as of 2016, and it mentions Finnish growth and genomic strategies, as well as the efforts to balance privacy rights and innovation. An independent parliamentary democracy in Finland is examined, along with the country's health care system, a Nordic Welfare State, and Finland's cultural, economic, and political research environment. Finland's Biobank Act and Personal Data Act are examined, along with genomic research laws.

The purpose of this paper is to envision new ways of working in the justice sector and to present the best practices and lessons learned in current e-justice in Finland. In 2011, Finnish prosecutors, district and appellate court judges and other court staff were interviewed and engaged in a workshop to envision ICT-supported workflow for resolving criminal cases. The three-stage anticipation dialogue workshop envisioned new ways of working in 2015, the challenges in the 4-year time span preceding it, and finally the possibilities of advanced technology. Workshop participants were relatively cautious with their visions, which clearly indicated that advanced technology as such is no solution. They considered interlinked and well-structured electronic documents with online access for all parties as enablers for working e-justice. Working with electronic documents requires accessory displays, cabling and power outlets for laptops as well as wireless networks. Scheduling - a time-consuming secondary task - could be facilitated by shared electronic calendars with court room booking capabilities. Remote hearing and videoconferencing were anticipated to play a larger role in the future. Throughout the workshop, the importance of user-friendly information systems was emphasized. Even though the core task of practicing law was expected to remain the same, new technology requires a change in work practices. Adopting new ways of working can be challenging, and in addition to correctly-timed and well-targeted training, employees will also need support from their superiors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the underlying rationales and tensions of network governance and programme steering in policy planning processes by closely examining their practical implementation in the national and municipal child and youth welfare planning. It is asserted that a fundamental gap exists not only between the ideals and actual practices of networked planning, but also (despite being seen as forming a natural alliance) between network governance and programme steering. This gap is mainly because the former emphasizes governmental openness, whereas the latter tends to be connected to administrative centralization and control. In order to be successful, the article concludes, both need elements of political exclusion albeit for different reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the tradition of 'Nordic openness', and intensified by international trends, the norm of policy-making transparency is strong in Finland. Inspired by organizational institutionalism, the present article studies what this notion of transparency means in practice. A case study of a social security reform committee is presented. The consensus-building practices typical of Finnish corporatist policy-making significantly constrained the transparency of government communication during the lifetime of the committee. The government communicated actively in public to meet the demand for transparency; but in order to secure effective bargaining, the government communicated issues concerning the committee so vaguely that it did not inspire wide public discussion. Public discussion was instead mainly fuelled by leaks. These findings suggest that a strong norm of transparency can lead to ceremonial transparency, where government public communication is loosely coupled with policy-making practices. These ceremonies might strengthen the notion of Nordic openness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the short history of open data there is evidence that open data can significantly contribute to open government and transparency, citizens engagement, better informed decisions, innovative applications, better services, new businesses and jobs. Unlocking data introduces a new culture bringing also challenges, above all such as legal, technical and economic ones. The paper will discuss early experiences of open data and demonstrate, by using the Helsinki Region Infoshare open data service www.hri.fi as a case study, how to set up an open data service and how to make the opening of data part of the daily work of staff members in the municipalities concerned. In addition the case study will show that it is not enough to open data, you should also promote and encourage the use of the open data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]