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pertti pesonen and olavi riihinen
Dynamic Finland
The Political System and the Welfare State
Studia Fennica
Historica

The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) was founded in 1831 and has,
from the very beginning, engaged in publishing operations. It nowadays publishes
literature in the fields of ethnology and folkloristics, linguistics, literary
research and cultural history.
The first volume of the Studia Fennica series appeared in 1933. Since 1992,
the series has been divided into three thematic subseries: Ethnologica,
Folkloristica and Linguistica. Two additional subseries were formed
in 2002, Historica and Litteraria. The subseries Anthropologica was formed
in 2007.
In addition to its publishing activities, the Finnish Literature Society
maintains research activities and infrastructures, an archive containing
folklore and literary collections, a research library and promotes Finnish literature abroad.
Studia fennica editorial board
Anna-Leena Siikala
Rauno Endén
Teppo Korhonen
Pentti Leino
Auli Viikari
Kristiina Näyhö
Editorial Office
SKS
P.O. Box 259
FI-00171 Helsinki

Pertti Pesonen & Olavi Riihinen
The Political System
and the Welfare State
Finnish Literature Society • Helsinki
Dynamic Finland

The publication has undergone a peer review.
Studia Fennica Historica 3
© 2002 Pertti Pesonen, Olavi Riihinen and SKS
License CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
A digital edition of a printed book first published in 2002 by the Finnish Literature Society.
Cover Design: Timo Numminen
EPUB: eLibris Media Oy
ISBN 978-951-746-426-0 (Print)
ISBN 978-952-222-822-2 (PDF)
ISBN 978-952-222-823-9 (EPUB)
ISSN 0085-6835 (Studia Fennica)
ISSN 1458-526X (Studia Fennica Historica)
DOI:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International License.
To view a copy of the license, please visit
A free open access version of the book is available at .
org/10.21435/sfh.3 or by scanning this QR code with your mobile device.
The open access publication of this volume has received part funding via
a Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation grant.

5
Contents
FOREWORD W. Phillips Shively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1. FINNISH FEATURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2. PATHWAYS TO MODERN FINLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Roots, Autonomy, and Independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Emerging National Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
The Rise of Civil Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Democratic Republic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
From Preindustrial to Postindustrial Economy . . . . . . . . . . 37
The Arduous Road to Welfare State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Foreign Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3. FINNISH NATIONALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Early Nationalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Nationalism vs. Communism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Nationalism and Globalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4. SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND BASES OF CONFLICT . . . . . 66
The Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Social Class and the Red-White Cleavage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Regional Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Other Conflicts and Cleavages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
A Case Story: The Nuclear Power Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5. CIVIL SOCIETY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Labor Market Organizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Other Old Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

6
The New Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Social Welfare and Health Care Organizations . . . . . . . . . . 105
Political Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
6. THE MASS MEDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
The Press and Other Print Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Radio and Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
The New Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
7. PEOPLE’S ATTACHMENT TO POLITICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Political Involvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Trust, Pride, and Resentment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127