Parties, Governments and Voters in Finland: Politics Under Fundamental Societal Transformation by Lauri Karvonen

Author:Lauri Karvonen [Karvonen, Lauri]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Campaigns & Elections, Comparative Politics, Political Parties, Political Science, Political Process
ISBN: 9781910259337
Google: 4SxmCgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 26493221
Publisher: ECPR Press
Published: 2014-11-03T11:58:42+00:00

The life and times of Finnish cabinets

Cabinets are formed, they govern and they are terminated. This is the basic ‘life cycle’ of the executive in parliamentary systems (Müller et al. 2008: 10). Each of these main phases presupposes or contains several elements. Someone must be chosen as government formateur. Agreement has to be reached about which parties will be included in the new cabinet. These parties must agree on the main features of government policy, either in the shape of a formal government programme or as a set of main policy guidelines to be followed. The distribution of portfolios between cabinet parties must be determined and the individuals who will hold the various portfolios must be selected. Depending on the constitutional blueprint and previous practice, the formal appointment of the cabinet as a collective, and the ministers as individuals, will then normally follow.

The way the cabinet governs similarly varies according to constitutional features and national practices. Some cabinets are prime-minister-centred; others are more egalitarian, with the prime minister as primus inter pares (Sartori 1994: 101–20). Some cabinets work through internal committees, other perform their main duties at general cabinet meetings. In some systems parliament has an active part in decision-making; in others it stays on the side-lines. The variation is almost unlimited.

Cabinets are terminated either due to an election or prematurely. They can be voted out of office through a vote of no confidence by the parliamentary majority, or they can resign due to internal disagreements. Their resignation may be contingent on an actor or institution outside the parliamentary sphere, usually the president, in the case of a republic. In some systems, calling an early election is an active instrument in the hands of the prime minister; in some others it is exceptional or even impossible.

All these phases and aspects of a cabinet’s life cycle have been affected by the constitutional transition from a semi-presidential to an almost pure parliamentary system that was completed in Finland when the new constitution was enacted in 2000. It is necessary, therefore, to highlight this constitutional-reform process before presenting the central features of contemporary cabinet politics in Finland.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.