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The Finnish Christian League: Party or ‘Anti‐Party’?
Author(s) -
Arter David
Publication year - 1980
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.1467-9477.1980.tb00241.x
Subject(s) - polity , league , elite , political science , work (physics) , political economy , public administration , law , sociology , politics , mechanical engineering , physics , astronomy , engineering
Work on the Finnish protest elections of the 1970s has concentrated on Vennamo's Rural Party. Yet at the general elections in 1979 the Finnish Christian League succeeded in surpassing not only the Rural but also the centre‐based Swedish and Liberal People's parties. This paper has two main objectives: firstly, to consider why in a monoreligious, multiparty polity an interest‐specific Christian party has emerged; and, secondly, using elite interviews and survey data, to examine the genealogy of its active members. A distinctive genus, at once party and ‘anti‐party’, is traced.