The Finnish Way of Governance: Something New on the Horizon?

Abstract

The Finnish political system is based on representative forms of governance. The electoral system is proportional within the constraints of areal representation secured by largely independent districts. Partly in response to declining turnout in elections, occasional initiatives have been presented to increase the proportionality of the system, thus far to no avail. At the same time and presumably at least partly for similar reasons, calls to introduce electronic voting have been raised. Deliberative institutions have also been mentioned as ways of improving the quality of Finnish democracy. In this brief note, we shall deal with these initiatives, their motivations and problems related to them.