We know a lot about the prerequisites and functioning of Finnish democracy. Yet at the same time we know very little. When international comparisons of the most common basic prerequisites for the realisation of democracy are made, Finland is found among the top countries in the world.

We know that citizens in Finland have better opportunities to form, express and advocate their own political opinions than people in many other countries. Different levels of government also pay attention to democracy, and there are government programmes aimed at supporting citizens’ participation.


Those active now will not be active forever

So why make a fuss about the development of democracy? Because we also know other things. Many of those most active today will not be active forever, and not every structure works better just because it is set in stone. For example, the golden days of Finland’s political party organisations passed at least 25 years ago.
Even middle-aged Finns no longer have strong ties with political parties and young people are very rarely involved in party work. We do not know how this will impact the social participation of different generations in the future.

This is a problem because parties and representative democracy form the core where power is exercised at different levels of government, whereas political participation outside parties may not always reach these centres of power.

Yet it is exactly these centres of power that citizens’ involvement should reach on an equal footing. To support this, we need a strong civil society and wide and varied citizens’ participation. After all, participation is never channelled on an either/or basis. Studies show that it often takes place through both channels.


Finnish democracy research is scattered

What do we not know? In Finland both applied and concrete democracy research have been somewhat scattered.

Over the decades university researchers, research institutes and other organisations supporting government and policy development have produced a lot of interesting information about citizens’ participation and societal attitudes, but we have still not seen a reliable follow-up study based on these findings. 

This is also why we do not have satisfactory answers to a lot of questions about the reasons behind many developments. But, such a knowledge base is vital to combat undesirable developments, such as increasing non-participation.

Current research topics creating a knowledge base for the development of Finnish democracy include:

• more extensive and longer-term studies on how different population groups participate in voting;
• citizens’ participation in and relationship to party activities, standing for elections and political positions of trust;
• equality perspectives on participation;
• the role of the media as a source of information about and attitudes to politics;
• citizens’ participation in the activities of associations and non-governmental organisations;
• opportunities of other civic activities and participatory democracy;
• utilisation of new participation channels such as the Internet;
• information, attitudes and preparedness to participate in issues related to society in schools and other educational institutions;
• issues related to the changes in municipal democracy.

A typical, and serious, question that still remains almost untouched by statistics and research is the voting rates of different age groups.

As yet official statistics do not present data on this, so information about age-specific voting habits can only be obtained through separate studies that involve a lot of work.

Reasons for not voting often seem to build up, but we do not know how such accumulation could be prevented. We may see more extensive and perhaps even long-term non-voting in the future.

A study which was based on the 2004 municipal election and outlined the municipal democracy audits found that in many urban residential areas voting rates among under-25-year-old men were as low as 17 per cent (see Sari Pikkala’s article in Suomen demokratiaindikaattorit [Indicators of Finnish Democracy). Surely we do not want to settle for a democracy where six out of seven people do not vote?

The author is a political researcher and Director of the Finnish Social Science Data Archive.