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Changing Regulation and Governance of Finnish Energy Policy Making: New Rules but Old Elites?
Author(s) -
Ruostetsaari Ilkka
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.2010.00442.x
Subject(s) - elite , technocracy , unanimity , energy policy , corporate governance , deregulation , state (computer science) , economics , economic system , political science , politics , renewable energy , market economy , law , finance , computer science , electrical engineering , engineering , algorithm
Energy policy making is commonly seen as a sector dominated more by experts and technocrats than politicians. Regulation of Finnish energy policy, which was traditionally characterized by state‐centeredness and detailed governmental control, was step by step annulled in the mid‐1980s on, and a deregulation policy was introduced. The return of regulation can be timed to in the beginning of the twenty‐first century, being the result of the global debate and measures dealing with climate change. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which the changes of operational environment have transformed the power structure of Finnish energy policy making and whether the key actors constitute a coherent energy elite in terms of attitudinal unanimity and interaction networks. Methodologically the study was based on three sets of elite interview data collected in 1987, 1997, and 2009 and a postal survey conducted among the citizenry in 2007. The major finding was that despite fundamental changes in the operational environment the power structure of the energy sector policy making has been fairly stable from 1987 to 2009 and the old cohesive energy elite is still in power.