Parties, Governments and Voters in Finland: Politics Under Fundamental Societal Transformation [Paperback]

This book is the story of what happens to parties, governments and voters when the fundamental features that conditioned party formation and voter alignments undergo rapid change.Finland's modern, technologically advanced welfare state is, in fact, a fairly recent creation, because the social changes that led to it occurred in Finland much later than elsewhere in the West. Once underway, however, such changes took place with unprecedented speed. This book is the story of what happens to parties, governments and voters when the fundamental features that conditioned party formation and voter alignments undergo rapid change. It is this that makes the Finnish case interesting and, as far as possible, this book examines Finland in a comparative perspective. Karvonen's study is based on a wealth of new primary evidence. It demonstrates that Finland is indeed a special case in certain respects, especially when it comes to the attenuation of ideological rivalry and the recurrent waves of populist protest.ContentsList of Figures and Tables viiAcknowledgements xiChapter One: Introduction 1Chapter Two: Three Pillars Transformed 23Chapter Three: Parties Under Pressure 43Chapter Four: The Politics of Oversized Coalitions 73Chapter Five: Voters Amidst Change 107Chapter Six: Conclusion: Politics in a Changing Society 145Bibliography 153Index 169Lauri Karvonen is Professor of Political Science at ?bo Akademi, Finland, and Director of Democracy: A Citizen Perspective (D:CE, a Centre of Excellence in Research on Democracy). His previous books include?Fragmentation and Consensus?(1993) and?Party Systems and Voter Alignments Revisited(2001). He has published articles in journals such as?International Studies Quarterly,?Journal of Theoretical Politics,?International Political Science Review?and?Party Politics.