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Interest Representation in the Finnish Committee System in the Post‐War Era
Author(s) -
Helander Voitto
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9477.1979.tb00220.x
Subject(s) - corporatization , representation (politics) , political science , public interest , point (geometry) , phenomenon , public relations , special interest group , public administration , law , politics , epistemology , philosophy , geometry , mathematics
In this article we analyze the representation of interest organizations in the Finnish committee system in the post‐war era, especially in the 1960's and 1970's. The theoretical point of departure is the concept of corporatization, by which we mean that interest organizations continually participate in the making of authoritative decisions in cooperation with public authorities. When trying to ascertain whether corporatization has taken place in the Finnish committee system we considered the development of four structural sub‐dimensions: (1) different kinds of arenas for cooperation, (2) legal regulation of interest representation, (3) extensiveness of interest representation, and (4) concentration of interest representation. The results show that corporative traits have increased in the Finnish committee system during the period under consideration. Without investigating in more detail the role of the representatives of interest organizations vis‐a‐vis the output of committees and, further, the role of committees in societal decision‐making processes, we are not able to draw more far‐reaching conclusions about this phenomenon.