Kansankirkko, uskonnonvapaus ja valtio : Suomen evankelis-luterilaisen kirkon kirkolliskokouksen tulkinta uskonnonvapaudesta 1963-2003

A national church, freedom of religion, and the state The interpretation of freedom of religion formulated by the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in reference to the relationship between the Church and the state from 1963 to 2003 This paper discusses the interpretation of freedom of religion formulated by the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland during the years 1963-2003. The effect of these formulations and decisions made by the Synod on the relationship between the Church and the state is also discussed as the relationship has been a central issue in the debate about freedom of religion in Finland. Active co-operation with the state caused a dispute in the Church during this period. Another cause for concern for the Synod, a strong defender of the national church, was the weakening position of the Church in a society undergoing many changes. As the Synod of 1963 discussed the status of the Church, the Church began to reflect upon its identity as a national church, and to evaluate freedom of religion in the country, as well as the relationship between the Church and the state. Some of the radicals of the 1960s and 1970s presented the Church as an obstacle to freedom of religion. The Synod was keen to emphasize that, in accordance with international agreements on human rights, freedom of religion means the freedom to have and follow a religion, and also that freedom of religion was a right of the majority in Finnish society. As an active guardian of the rights of its members, the Synod defended such issues as the teaching of religion in schools. Throughout the dispute, the Church focused on its right to act freely and, according to its identity, to express spirituality in the society. At the end of the 1960s, several efforts to reform the law on the freedom of religion and the relationship between the Church and the state gained favour in the Synod. These formulations of the Church were the basis for the work of a parliamentary committee in the 1970s, but no significant changes resulted. Instead, freedom of religion in Finland was judged to be fairly good. The committee paper did, however, lead to preparations for greater independence of the Church. The Synod at the time chose to react to the changes presented to it, but it was not before the 1990s that the Synod became an active force of reform in these matters. Though the Synod, particularly from the 1970s onwards, began clearly to favour the improvement of the position of other religious communities in Finland, it felt it had reason to be cautious as each church and religious community had the freedom to decide individually its relationship with the state. Any changes that would have weakened the position of the Church in Finnish society were met with disapproval in the Synod. Even though some theological concerns regarding the national identity of the Church were raised, the Synod emphasized issues of church policy. Keen to preserve and protect its legal status in society, the Synod judged that this status supported the freedom of action enjoyed by the Church as well as the freedom of religion.

Kirkon vai valtion kirjat? : Uskontokuntasidonnaisuuden ongelma Suomen väestökirjanpidossa 1839-1904

The Population Register – run by the Church or the state? The problem posed by the obligation to belong to a religious community in the registration of births and deaths in Finland between 1839 and 1904 The Lutheran Church of Finland is the nation’s largest church; approximately 82 per cent of Finns were members in 2007. The Church ran an official register of its members until 1999, when the state then undertook this task. The registration of births and deaths by the Church has a long history dating back to the 17th century, when Bishop Johannes Gezelius Sr. decreed that all parish members would have to be recorded in parish registers. These registers were used to control how well parish members knew the Christian doctrine and, gradually, also if they were literate. Additionally, the Church attempted to ensure by means of the parish registers that parish members went to Holy Communion annually. Since everyone was a member of the Lutheran Church, the state also took advantage of the parish registers and used them for the purposes of tax collection and conscription. The main research theme of “The Population Register – run by the Church or the state?” goes back to these times. The actual research period covers the years of 1839–1904. At that time Finland was under Russian rule, although autonomous. In the late 19th century the press and different associations in Finland began to engage in public debate, and the country started moving from a submissive society to a civic one. The identity of the Lutheran Church also became more prominent when the Church Act and the General Synod were realised in 1869. A few years earlier, municipal and parish administrations had been separated, but the general registration of births and deaths was left to the Church to see to. In compliance with the constitution of the country, all the inhabitants in principle still had to be Lutheran. In practice, the situation was different. The religious and ideological realms diversified, and the Lutheran concept of religion was no longer acceptable to everyone. The conflict was reflected in the registration of births and deaths, which was linked to the Lutheran Church and its parish registers. Nobody was allowed to leave the Church, there was no civil register, and the Lutheran Church did not consent to record unbaptized children in the parish registers. Therefore such children were left without civil rights. Thus the obligation to belong to a religious community had become a problem in the registration of births and deaths. The Lutheran clergy also appealed to the 1723 privileges, according to which they had been exempted from the drawing up of additional population registers. In 1889 Finland passed the Dissenters Act. By virtue of this act the Baptists and the Methodists left the state Church, but this was not the case with the members of the free churches. The freethinkers had to retain their church membership, as the law did not apply to them. This meant that the unbaptized children of the members of the free churches or those of freethinkers were still not entered in any registers. The children were not able to go to school, work for the state or legally marry. Neither were they able to inherit property, as they did not legally exist. The system of parish registers was created when everyone was required to be a member of the Lutheran Church, but it did not work when liberal attitudes eventually penetrated the sphere of religion, too. The government´s measures to solve the problem were slow and cautious, partly because Finland was part of Russia, partly because there were only about 100 unbaptized children. As the problem group was small and the state´s resources were limited, no general civil register was established. The state accepted the fact that in spite of the problems, the Evangelical Lutheran Church and the congregations of dissenters were the only official establishments to run populations registers in the country, and for social purposes, too. In 1900 the Diet of Finland finally approved a limited civil register, which unbaptized children and unregistered foreigners would be recorded in. Due to political reasons the civil register did not come into existence until 1917, after the actual research period.

Rakkauden välittäjä vai moraalinvartija : Narratiivinen tutkimus Suomen evankelis-luterilaisen kirkon papeista perhe- ja seksuaalikysymysten äärellä

The research goal was to clarify how ministers in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland construct their identities when they confront family and sexual issues, particularly as seen in their narrations about their work and the factors that influence their ways of working. The approach was a narrative one placing the emphases was on the internal story. The research material consisted of interviews of 19 ministers and the written biographies of 3 ministers who had also been interviewed. The data was analysed narratively (analysis of the narrations and a narrative analysis). The life stories were classified on the basis of the logic in each, and five different internal story types were created: the persons on the road to recovery, those within safe boundaries, those who had learnt to be critical, those with an obligation to help, and those who had grown to be open. In all of the story types was evidented a conflict between the ministry of the Church and the way it was adapted to the lives of individuals experiencing family and sexual issues. On one hand, this was a source of stress at work, but on the other, it offered a chance to create new images of ministers struggling with family and sexual issues. Life experience was found to be important when the study subjects interpreted and dealt with family and sexual issues. Those on the road to recovery felt that becoming a Christian and the personal recovery that faith had made possible had a significant impact on their personal lives. This healing effect of faith was also a strengthening factor for them when they dealt with family and sexual issues. Typically, they approached work situations by taking into account their faith and the type of psychological knowledge that was acceptable within the boundaries set by it. Those within safe boundaries worked within the limits prescribed by the revivalist movement that they had grown up in, from their childhood onwards, and their experiences in adulthood had even strengthened their commitment to the movement. Typically, they were keen to proclaim the views of the movement in public, but they were also prone to stay silent if and when felt those views would cause an uproar. Those who had learnt to be critical had previously been holistically committed to the views expressed by the Church in family and sexual matters. It was their experiences in life that had led them into conflict with the teachings of the Church. Their approach to work was one of ambivalence resulting from a conflict between their current and previous views, which was further exacerbated by their irresolution concerning how a minister should act in these situations. Those with an obligation to help questioned the church teachings marriage as the only family ideal. When they met various kinds of families and sexual identities, and also when they adopted the identity of a helper, the foundation of their ministerial identity was the Two Commandments of Love. Their work was burdened, however, by a fear of how the Church and the parishioners would take their teaching. Those who had grown to be open were more sure of themselves than the other groups. Years in the ministry as well as life-long experience had made them into persons who were following paths of their own. Openly critical of the views on family and sexual issues proclaimed by the Church, they were keen to present their personal convictions and were able to defend these publicly when necessary. Search words: Narrative research, internal story, minister, church, family, sexuality.

Pappi ja Raamattu : Suomen evankelis-luterilaisen kirkon pappien suhde Raamattuun

The Pastor and the Bible: Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Pastors Relationship with the Bible Since 1970s there has been extensive discussion in Finland about questions relating to the interpretation of the Bible. The themes of this discussion have focused on the trustworthiness and authority of the Bible, and the discussion has attracted participation not only from representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland but also from representatives of the academic community. The discussion has resulted in extensive publication on the relation of postmodern theology to the Bible. Despite this debate and the texts that have been produced, there is little empirical data on how Evangelical Lutheran pastors with theological education view the Bible. In the present study, 22 pastors of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland were interviewed about how they defined their relationship with the Bible. The interview material was analyzed by means of data-based content analysis. The analysis showed, first, that the pastors viewed the Bible as a mirror of the spiritual growth that they had experienced in the past. Second, the Bible was viewed as a source in the interpretation of matters of faith. The third theme concerned the pastors key experiences in their relationship with the authority of the Bible. The time periods that were significant in defining pastors spiritual growth and past perspective on the Bible included childhood, youth, the period of theological education, and the time spent as a pastor. In childhood, the Bible was part of the spiritual atmosphere of the home, and parents and grandparents made a crucial contribution to the child s emerging view of the Bible. In childhood, the Bible was essentially the Old Testament and its exciting stories. In youth, reading the Bible became more personal, and the teachings of Jesus began to take on a more central role. In youth, most of the interviewees had strong experiences of faith and began to view the Bible as an absolute and divine source of dogma. The period of theological studies meant a change in their relationship with the Bible and particularly, revelation of the human aspects of the Bible. These changes were associated with a deepening of belief in the Bible and also a painful crisis in questions related to the trustworthiness of the Bible. For many of the interviewees, their relationship with the Bible changed also when they started their work as pastors. When faced with a call to work as a pastor, the interviewees created a synthesis of the secure faith that they had experienced in their childhood and the more critical views with which they had become acquainted during their theological education. Pastorhood meant the beginning of public teaching of the Bible. The interviewees felt that, in this new role, they discovered again - but now in a deeper sense - the trustworthiness in the bible that they had experienced during their childhood. Based on the interviewees experiences during the periods mentioned above, five different interpretations were formed regarding how the interviewed pastors viewed their past relationship with the Bible. These interpretations were detachment from literal interpretation of the Bible (1), changes in their relationship with the Bible arising from experiences of faith (2), a slow process during which their relationship with the Bible became more human (3), overcoming hardships (4), and no change in their relationship with the Bible (5). In interpretations 1-3, the past was described as a linear development and journey towards a more coherent relationship with the Bible. Interpretations 4-5, in turn, reflected a desire to detach oneself from the perspectives of linear development and change and, instead, emphasize the immutable and process-like nature of one s relationship with the Bible. Concerning the Bible as a source in matters of faith, a conspicuous aspect of the interviews was that all pastors wanted to disconnect themselves from a fundamentalistic view of the Bible, regarding this as an intellectually dishonest relationship with the Bible. On the other hand, none of the interviewees supported a totally relativist view of the Bible. Instead, all interviewees regarded the Bible as a vital source for both them and the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Between the two poles of extremely fundamental and extremely relativistic views, four different categories of viewing the Bible emerged from the interviews: absolute truth (a), a book about the message of salvation (b), a book about holiness and generous love (c), and a source of inspiration (d). The views in categories (a) and (b) emphasized the divine nature of the Bible. According to the pastors who expressed these views, the Bible contains a clear and trustworthy message of God. The views in categories (c) and (d), in turn, emphasized the human aspects of the Bible. The pastors who expressed these views regarded the Bible as a collection of books that was born in a specific historical and cultural context and includes material characteristic to this time. Due to the time-bound nature of the Bible, each generation has to update its view of the Bible. The views in categories (c) and (d) arose from human reality. Comparisons of the views in the different categories indicated that despite their obvious differences, they also shared some common features. The views in categories (a) and (d) shared the common feature of absoluteness, which was seen in category (a) as an emphasis on dogmatism and in category (d) as an emphasis on rationalism. The views in categories (b) and (c), in turn, shared the common feature of a flexible and dynamic relationship with the Bible. The key experiences that appeared to characterize pastors relationship with the authority of the Bible were a joy that arises from self-evidence, awakening to confusion, fear of openness, falling back upon paradoxes, and new confidence. These experiences reveal the circular nature of the process that was common to all interviewees interpretation of their relationship with the Bible. That is, the interviewees experiences of their relationship with the Bible seem to go through a circular process that is activated again and again in new life events. It is like a journey from self-evidence towards critical questions and again back to new confidence. The interview material showed, hence, that relationship with the Bible are characterized by a process that involves experiences of trust, questioning and new trust. The present study brings out the multifaceted reality of pastors relationship with the Bible. The study breaks down contradictions between conservative and liberal views of the Bible by showing how representatives of these opposing poles share commonalities in their attitudes. The study points to a close association between an individual s life history and his or her relationship with the Bible, and lays the groundwork for future studies to investigate the relation between personality and view of the Bible.

Kansankirkko, uskonnonvapaus ja valtio : Suomen evankelis-luterilaisen kirkon kirkolliskokouksen tulkinta uskonnonvapaudesta 1963-2003

A national church, freedom of religion, and the state The interpretation of freedom of religion formulated by the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland in reference to the relationship between the Church and the state from 1963 to 2003 This paper discusses the interpretation of freedom of religion formulated by the Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland during the years 1963-2003. The effect of these formulations and decisions made by the Synod on the relationship between the Church and the state is also discussed as the relationship has been a central issue in the debate about freedom of religion in Finland. Active co-operation with the state caused a dispute in the Church during this period. Another cause for concern for the Synod, a strong defender of the national church, was the weakening position of the Church in a society undergoing many changes. As the Synod of 1963 discussed the status of the Church, the Church began to reflect upon its identity as a national church, and to evaluate freedom of religion in the country, as well as the relationship between the Church and the state. Some of the radicals of the 1960s and 1970s presented the Church as an obstacle to freedom of religion. The Synod was keen to emphasize that, in accordance with international agreements on human rights, freedom of religion means the freedom to have and follow a religion, and also that freedom of religion was a right of the majority in Finnish society. As an active guardian of the rights of its members, the Synod defended such issues as the teaching of religion in schools. Throughout the dispute, the Church focused on its right to act freely and, according to its identity, to express spirituality in the society. At the end of the 1960s, several efforts to reform the law on the freedom of religion and the relationship between the Church and the state gained favour in the Synod. These formulations of the Church were the basis for the work of a parliamentary committee in the 1970s, but no significant changes resulted. Instead, freedom of religion in Finland was judged to be fairly good. The committee paper did, however, lead to preparations for greater independence of the Church. The Synod at the time chose to react to the changes presented to it, but it was not before the 1990s that the Synod became an active force of reform in these matters. Though the Synod, particularly from the 1970s onwards, began clearly to favour the improvement of the position of other religious communities in Finland, it felt it had reason to be cautious as each church and religious community had the freedom to decide individually its relationship with the state. Any changes that would have weakened the position of the Church in Finnish society were met with disapproval in the Synod. Even though some theological concerns regarding the national identity of the Church were raised, the Synod emphasized issues of church policy. Keen to preserve and protect its legal status in society, the Synod judged that this status supported the freedom of action enjoyed by the Church as well as the freedom of religion.

Avioliiton teologia Englannin kirkossa ja Suomen evankelis-luterilaisessa kirkossa vuosina 1963-2006

The theology of marriage in the Church of England(CofE) and in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland(ELCF)1963–2006 The method of the study is a systematic analysis of the sources. In the CofE marriage stems from creation, but it is also sacramental, grounded in the theology of love and redemption. Man and woman have a connection between them that is a mystical union in character because of the one between Christ and the Church; therefore every marriage is sacramental. The purposes of marriage have been expressed in a different order than earlier. A caring relationship and sexuality are set before childbirth as the causes of marriage. The remedial cause of marriage is also moved to the background and it cannot be found in the recent wedding formulas. A personal relationship and marriage as a school of faith and love have a central place in the theology of marriage. The theology of love unites the love of God and marriage. In the CofE the understanding of divorce and co-habiting has changed, too. Co-habiting can now be understood as a stage towards marriage. Divorce has been understood as a phenomenon that must be taken as a fact after an irretrievable breakdown of marriage. Thus the church must concentrate on pastoral care after divorce. Similarly, the ELCF also maintains that the order of creation is the origin of marriage as a lifelong institution. This is also an argument for the solemnization of marriage in the church. Faith and grace are not needed for real marriage because marriage is the culmination of reason and natural law. The society defines marriage and the church gives its blessing to the married couples if so requested. Luther’s view of marriage is different from this because he saw marriage as a school of love and faith, similar to CofE. He saw faith as essential to enable the fullfillment of natural law. Marriage in the ELCF is mostly a matter of natural ethics. An ideal form of life is sought through the Golden Rule. This interpretation of marriage means that it does not presuppose Christian education for children to follow. The doctrine of the two kingdoms is definitely essential as background. It has been impugned by scholars, however, as a permanent foundation of marriage. There is a difference between the marriage formulas and the other sources concerning the purposes of marriage in the ELCF. The formulas do not include sexuality, childbirth or children and their education as purposes of marriage. The formulas include less theological vocabulary than in the CofE. The liturgy indicates the doctrine in CofE. In the Lutheran churches there is not any need to express the doctrine in the wedding formulas. This has resulted in less theology of marriage in the formulas. The theology of Luther is no longer any ruling principle in the theology of marriage. The process of continuing change in society refines the terms for marriage more than the theological arguments do.

Ihanne ja todellisuus : Jäsenyyteen sitoutuminen Suomen evankelis-luterilaisessa kirkossa 1960-luvulta 2000-luvulle

The subject of the study is the ideal and reality of commitment to membership in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland from the 1960s to the 2000s. The research task is to ascertain what manner of commitment the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland expects from its members (the ideal) and how in reality membership of the Church is realized (empiria). The research object is also to study the extent to which the ideal of commitment evinced by the Church and the actual relation of commitment to the Church changed during the research period. Additionally, those factors were analysed which influence the relation between the ideal and reality of commitment. In the analysis of the ideal of commitment the research data are official documents of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. They include confessions of the Church, Catechisms, Christian doctrine, joint strategies and plans of the Church, likewise the Church Act and Church Order. The reality of commitment is explored on the basis of Church membership, participation in parish activity and the private practice of religion, likewise attitude to Christian faith. The empirical data of the study comprise Church statistics, material from Statistics Finland and relevant surveys implemented during the research period. The ideal of commitment alongside membership includes knowing the basic tenets of Christian faith and family life based on prayer and participation in liturgical cycles. A member of the Church is expected to take care of his/her faith by living in participation of the Word and sacrament, bearing responsibility for the parish and faithfully discharging his/her worldly obligations. There have been no major changes in the ideal of commitment during the research period. On the contrary, the reality of commitment has changed. Although the majority of Finns are still members of the Church, there has been a constant decline in their share of the population. The same can be stated with respect to parish life. This has its own strengths, among them Church rites, parish activity around feast days and also work with children and confirmation training. However, the general trend is towards a decline in participation. There has also been a decrease in commitment to belief in God as taught by the Church. On the other hand, private religious observance has not changed at all. From the perspective of commitment the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland exists in a state of tension between the theological ideal and sociological empiria. Matters exerting a particular influence over the relation between ideal and reality are communality and varying conceptions of the Church, likewise contextuality and the related private Christianity. Societal change poses a challenge to traditional Church communality. A decline in communality has in turn led to a decline in belonging to the Church. Weakening awareness of membership has undermined the handing down of the tradition among younger generations. Modernization has influence the identity of the Church and brought the Church to an internal divergence. This way it has been able to retain its structure as a folk church but at the same time it has lost its opportunities for the formation of a clear identity. The Church has adjusted to societal change by outward-directed activities (performance) alongside the purely religious message (function). The tension between an unchanged message and a changed operating environment has increased. The challenge of contextuality has led the Church to review parish life, the nature of teaching and activity and the language used by the Church, likewise the cultural modus. Increasingly privatized Christianity challenges above all the theology and teaching of the Church, but also the life of worship and relation to cultural life.

Foreign Capital and Finland : Central government's first period of reliance on international financial markets, 1862-1938

The main objective of the study is to evaluate the Finnish central government s foreign borrowing between the years 1862 and 1938. Most of this period was characterised by deep capital market integration that bears resemblance to the liberal world financial order at the turn of the millennium. The main aim is to analyse the credit risk associated with the state and its determination by evaluating the world financial market centres perception of Finland. By doing this, the study is also expected to provide an additional dimension to Finland s political and economic history by incorporating into the research the assessments of international capital markets regarding Finland during a period that witnessed profound political and economic changes in Finnish society. The evaluation of the credit risk mainly relies on exchange-rate risk free time series of the state s foreign bonds. They have been collected from quotations in the stock exchanges in Helsinki, Hamburg, Paris and London. In addition, it investigates Finland s exposure to short-term debt and Moody s credit ratings assigned to Finland. The study emphasises the importance of the political risk. It suggests that the hey-day of the state s reliance on foreign capital markets took place during last few decades of the 19th century when Finland enjoyed a wide autonomy in the Russian Empire and prudently managed its economy, highlighted in Finland s adherence to the international gold standard. Political confrontations in Finland and, in particular, in Russia and the turbulence of the world financial system prevented the return of this beneficial position again. Through its issuance of foreign bonds the state was able to import substantial amounts of foreign capital, which was sorely needed to foster economic development in Finland. Moreover, the study argues that the state s presence in the western capital markets not only had economic benefits, but it also increased the international awareness of Finland s distinct and separate status in the Russian Empire and later underlined its position as an independent republic.

Small State Cultures of Consensus : State Traditions and Consensus-Seeking in the Neo-Corporatist and Neutrality Policies in Post-1945 Austria and Finland

Austria and Finland are persistently referred to as the “success stories” of post-1945 European history. Notwithstanding their different points of departure, in the course of the Cold War both countries portrayed themselves as small and neutral border-states in the world dictated by superpower politics. By the 1970s, both countries frequently ranked at the top end in various international classifications regarding economic development and well-being in society. This trend continues today. The study takes under scrutiny the concept of consensus which figures centrally in the two national narratives of post-1945 success. Given that the two domestic contexts as such only share few direct links with one another and are more obviously different than similar in terms of their geographical location, historical experiences and politico-cultural traditions, the analogies and variations in the anatomies of the post-1945 “cultures of consensus” provide an interesting topic for a historical comparative and cross-national examination. The main research question concerns the identification and analysis of the conceptual and procedural convergence points of the concepts of the state and consensus. The thesis is divided into six main chapters. After the introduction, the second chapter presents the theoretical framework in more detail by focusing on the key concepts of the study – the state and consensus. Chapter two also introduces the comparative historical and cross-national research angles. Chapter three grounds the key concepts of the state and consensus in the historical contexts of Austria and Finland by discussing the state, the nation and democracy in a longer term comparative perspective. The fourth and fifth chapter present case studies on the two policy fields, the “pillars”, upon which the post-1945 Austrian and Finnish cultures of consensus are argued to have rested. Chapter four deals with neo-corporatist features in the economic policy making and chapter five discusses the building up of domestic consensus regarding the key concepts of neutrality policies in the 1950s and 1960s. The study concludes that it was not consensus as such but the strikingly intense preoccupation with the theme of domestic consensus that cross-cut, in a curiously analogous manner, the policy-making processes studied. The main challenge for the post-1945 architects of Austrian and Finnish cultures of consensus was to find strategies and concepts for consensus-building which would be compatible with the principles of democracy. Discussed at the level of procedures, the most important finding of the study concerns the triangular mechanism of coordination, consultation and cooperation that set into motion and facilitated a new type of search for consensus in both post-war societies. In this triangle, the agency of the state was central, though in varying ways. The new conceptions concerning a small state’s position in the Cold War world also prompted cross-nationally perceivable willingness to reconsider inherited concepts and procedures of the state and the nation. At the same time, the ways of understanding the role of the state and its relation to society remained profoundly different in Austria and Finland and this basic difference was in many ways reflected in the concepts and procedures deployed in the search for consensus and management of domestic conflicts. For more detailed information, please consult the author.

EU Multi-level Governance in the Making - The Community Initiative LEADER+ in Finland and Germany

In order to fully understand the process of European integration it is of paramount importance to consider developments at the sub-national and local level. EU integration scholars shifted their attention to the local level only at the beginning of the 1990s with the concept of multi-level governance (MLG). While MLG is the first concept to scrutinise the position of local levels of public administration and other actors within the EU polity, I perceive it as too optimistic in the degree of influence it ascribes to local levels. Thus, learning from and combining MLG with other concepts, such as structural constructivism, helps to reveal some of the hidden aspects of EU integration and paint a more realistic picture of multi-level interaction. This thesis also answers the call for more case studies in order to conceptualise MLG further. After a critical study of theories and concepts of European integration, above all, MLG, I will analyse sub-national and local government in Finland and Germany. I show how the sub-national level and local governments are embedded in the EU s multi-level structure of governance and how, through EU integration, those levels have been empowered but also how their scope of action has partially decreased. After theoretical and institutional contextualisation, I present the results of my empirical study of the EU s Community Initiative LEADER+. LEADER stands for Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale , and aims at improving the economic conditions in Europe s rural areas. I was interested in how different actors construct and shape EU financed rural development, especially in how local actors organised in so-called local action groups (LAGs) cooperate with other administrative units within the LEADER+ administrative chain. I also examined intra-institutional relations within those groups, in order to find out who are the most influential and powerful actors within them. Empirical data on the Finnish and German LAGs was first gathered through a survey, which was then supplemented and completed by interviewing LAG members, LAG-managers, several civil servants from Finnish and German decision-making and managing authorities and a civil servant from the EU Commission. My main argument is that in both Germany and Finland, the Community Initiative LEADER+ offered a space for multi-level interaction and local-level involvement, a space that on the one hand consists of highly motivated people actively contributing to the improvement of the quality of life and economy in Europe s countryside but which is dependent and also restricted by national administrative practices, implementation approaches and cultures on the other. In Finland, the principle of tri-partition (kolmikantaperiaatte) in organising the executive committees of LAGs is very noticeable. In comparison to Germany, for instance, the representation of public administration in those committees is much more limited due to this principle. Furthermore, the mobilisation of local residents and the bringing together of actors from the local area with different social and institutional backgrounds to become an active part of LEADER+ was more successful in Finland than in Germany. Tri-partition as applied in Finland should serve as a model for similar policies in other EU member states. EU integration changed the formal and informal inter-institutional relations linking the different levels of government. The third sector including non-governmental institutions and interest groups gained access to policy-making processes and increasingly interact with government institutions at all levels of public administration. These developments do not necessarily result in the empowering of the local level.

The Soviet Union, Finland and the Cold War : The Finnish Card in Soviet Foreign Policy, 1956-1959

From the Soviet point of view the actual substance of Soviet-Finnish relations in the second half of 1950s clearly differed from the contemporary and later public image, based on friendship and confidence rhetoric. As the polarization between the right and the left became more underlined in Finland in the latter half of the 1950s, the criticism towards the Soviet Union became stronger, and the USSR feared that this development would have influence on Finnish foreign policy. From the Soviet point of view, the security commitments of FCMA-treaty needed additional guarantees through control of Finnish domestic politics and economic relations, especially during international crises. In relation to Scandinavia, Finland was, from the Soviet point of view, the model country of friendship or neutrality policy. The influence of the Second Berlin Crisis or the Soviet-Finnish Night Frost Crisis in 1958-1959 to Soviet policy towards Scandinavia needs to be observed from this point of view. The Soviet Union used Finland as a tool, in agreement with Finnish highest political leadership, for weakening of the NATO membership of Norway and Denmark, and for maintaining Swedish non-alliance. The Finnish interest to EFTA membership in the summer of 1959, at the same time with the Scandinavian countries, seems to have caused a panic reaction in the USSR, as the Soviets feared that these economic arrangements would reverse the political advantages the country had received in Finland after the Night Frost Crisis. Together with history of events, this study observes the interaction of practical interests and ideologies, both in individuals and in decision-making organizations. The necessary social and ideological reforms in the Soviet Union after 1956 had influence both on the legitimacy of the regime, and led to contradictions in the argumentation of Soviet foreign policy. This was observed both in the own camp as well as in the West. Also, in Finland a breakthrough took place in the late 1950's: as the so-called counter reaction lost to the K-line, "a special relationship" developed with the Soviet Union. As a consequence of the Night Frost Crisis the Soviet relationship became a factor decisively defining the limits of domestic politics in Finland, a part of Finnish domestic political argumentation. Understood from this basis, finlandization is not, even from the viewpoint of international relations, a special case, but a domestic political culture formed by the relationship between a dominant state, a superpower, and a subordinate state, Finland.

Reinventing Nordic Openness : Transparency and State Information in Finland

The study explores new ideational changes in the information strategy of the Finnish state between 1998 and 2007, after a juncture in Finnish governing in the early 1990s. The study scrutinizes the economic reframing of institutional openness in Finland that comes with significant and often unintended institutional consequences of transparency. Most notably, the constitutional principle of publicity (julkisuusperiaate), a Nordic institutional peculiarity allowing public access to state information, is now becoming an instrument of economic performance and accountability through results. Finland has a long institutional history in the publicity of government information, acknowledged by law since 1951. Nevertheless, access to government information became a policy concern in the mid-1990s, involving a historical narrative of openness as a Nordic tradition of Finnish governing Nordic openness (pohjoismainen avoimuus). International interest in transparency of governance has also marked an opening for institutional re-descriptions in Nordic context. The essential added value, or contradictory term, that transparency has on the Finnish conceptualisation of governing is the innovation that public acts of governing can be economically efficient. This is most apparent in the new attempts at providing standardised information on government and expressing it in numbers. In Finland, the publicity of government information has been a concept of democratic connotations, but new internationally diffusing ideas of performance and national economic competitiveness are discussed under the notion of transparency and its peer concepts openness and public (sector) information, which are also newcomers to Finnish vocabulary of governing. The above concepts often conflict with one another, paving the way to unintended consequences for the reforms conducted in their name. Moreover, the study argues that the policy concerns over openness and public sector information are linked to the new drive for transparency. Drawing on theories of new institutionalism, political economy, and conceptual history, the study argues for a reinvention of Nordic openness in two senses. First, in referring to institutional history, the policy discourse of Nordic openness discovers an administrative tradition in response to new dilemmas of public governance. Moreover, this normatively appealing discourse also legitimizes the new ideational changes. Second, a former mechanism of democratic accountability is being reframed with market and performance ideas, mostly originating from the sphere of transnational governance and governance indices. Mobilizing different research techniques and data (public documents of the Finnish government and international organizations, some 30 interviews of Finnish civil servants, and statistical time series), the study asks how the above ideational changes have been possible, pointing to the importance of nationalistically appealing historical narratives and normative concepts of governing. Concerning institutional developments, the study analyses the ideational changes in central steering mechanisms (political, normative and financial steering) and the introduction of budget transparency and performance management in two cases: census data (Population Register Centre) and foreign political information (Ministry for Foreign Affairs). The new policy domain of governance indices is also explored as a type of transparency. The study further asks what institutional transformations are to be observed in the above cases and in the accountability system. The study concludes that while the information rights of citizens have been reinforced and recalibrated during the period under scrutiny, there has also been a conversion of institutional practices towards economic performance. As the discourse of Nordic openness has been rather unquestioned, the new internationally circulating ideas of transparency and the knowledge economy have entered this discourse without public notice. Since the mid 1990s, state registry data has been perceived as an exploitable economic resource in Finland and in the EU public sector information. This is a parallel development to the new drive for budget transparency in organisations as vital to the state as the Population Register Centre, which has led to marketization of census data in Finland, an international exceptionality. In the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the post-Cold War rhetorical shift from secrecy to performance-driven openness marked a conversion in institutional practices that now see information services with high regards. But this has not necessarily led to the increased publicity of foreign political information. In this context, openness is also defined as sharing information with select actors, as a trust based non-public activity, deemed necessary amid the global economic competition. Regarding accountability system, deliberation and performance now overlap, making it increasingly difficult to identify to whom and for what the public administration is accountable. These evolving institutional practices are characterised by unintended consequences and paradoxes. History is a paradoxical component in the above institutional change, as long-term institutional developments now justify short-term reforms.

Itsenäisen Suomen puolesta : Sotilaskomitea 1915-1918

For Independent Finland. The Military Committee 1915–1918 In the course of the First World War, several organizations were founded with the purpose of making Finland independent or, at least, restoring her autonomous status. The Military Committee was the most significant active independence organization in Finland in the First World War, in addition to the activist student movement, i.e., the Jaeger Movement. The Military Committee was an organization founded in 1915 by officers who had attended the Hamina Cadet School, with the goal of creating a national army for a liberation war against the Russian troops. It was believed that the liberation war should succeed only with the help of the German Army. With the situation in society continually tensing up in the autumn 1917, the Military Committee also had to figure on the possibility of a Civil War. The activities of the Military Committee started in the early part of 1915 when they were still small-scale, but they gained significant momentum after the Russian Revolution in March 1917. In January 1918, the Military Committee formed the general staff for the White Army, the Senate’s troops. The independence-related activities of the Hamina cadets in the years of the First World War were more extensive and multifaceted than has been believed heretofore. The work of the Military Committee was divided into preparations for a liberation war in Finland, on one hand, and in Stockholm and Berlin, on the other hand. In Finland, the Military Committee took part in intelligence gathering for Germany and in supporting the recruiting Jaegers, and later in founding the civil guard organization, in solving the law and order authorities issue, and finally in selecting the Commander-in-Chief for the Senate’s troops. The member of the Military Committee, especially Captain Hannes Ignatius of the Cavalry contributed greatly to the drafting of the independence activists’ national action plan in Stockholm in May 1917. This plan preceded the formation of the civil guard organization. The Military Committee’s role in founding the civil guards was initially minor, but in the fall of 1917, the Military Committee started to finance the activities of the civil guards, named several former officers as commanders of the civil guards and finally overtook the entire civil guard movement. In Stockholm and Berlin, the representatives of the Military Committee were in active contact with both the high command of the German Army and with the representatives of the Swedish Army. Colonel Nikolai Mexmontan, who was a representative of the Military Committee, collaborated with Swedish officers and Jaeger officers in Stockholm in coming up with comprehensive and detailed plans for starting the Liberation War. Under Mexmontan’s leadership, there were serious negotiations to enter into a confederation with Germany. Lieutenant Colonel Wilhelm Thesleff, on the other hand, became the commander of the Jaeger Battalion 27. The influence and importance of the Military Committee came to the forefront in independent and conflict-torn Finland. The Military Committee became a Senate committee on the 7th of January 1918, with its chairman, for all practical purposes, as the Commander-in-Chief in an eventual war. Lieutenant General Claes Charpentier was the chairman of the Military Committee from mid-December 1917 onwards, but on the 15th of January 1918 he had to resign in favour of Lieutenant General Gustaf Mannerheim. Soon after that, Mannerheim got an order from the chairman of the Senate P. E. Svinhufvud to organize and assume the leadership of the law and order authorities. The chairman of the Military Committee became the Commander-in-Chief of the Senate troops in January 1918, and the Military Committee became the Commander-in-Chief’s general staff. The Military Committee had turned from a clandestine organization into the first general staff of the independent Finnish Army.

Tasa-arvo ja muutoksen rajat : Sukupuolten tasa-arvo poliittisena ongelmana Ranskan parité- ja Suomen kiintiökeskusteluissa

The study looks at the debates on gender equality in political decision-making in Finland and France in the 1990s and 2000s by analysing the argumentation for parité and quotas and the ways in which gender equality was constructed as a political problem. The focus of the study is on the parliamentary debates on the amendment of the electoral law in France in 2000 and the introduction of quota regulations into the Act on Equality in Finland in 1994 - 1995. The debates ended in the adoption of quota regulations in the electoral lists (France) and in the executive and preparatory bodies at the national and the local level (Finland). Apart from the analysis of the parliamentary debates, the study explores the political processes preceding the adoption of legislation as well as the debates on quotas and parity in Finnish and French societies in the 1980s and 1990s. The debates on gender equality are analysed as the sites of struggle and change with regard to the normative boundaries of gender equality, as well as of politics and citizenship. The cross-cultural perspective gives room to explore the ways in which gender equality and change can be imagined in different national contexts, and which kinds of discursive resources are available for the politicization of gender equality. Specific attention is paid to the discursive frames and agenda settings in the debates and how these set the limits of the imaginable and the possible in the promotion of gender equality. In both Finland and France, the promotion of equality was constructed as a national project, in which the main beneficiary was the society or the nation as a whole. In France, gender equality was an inherent part of the promotion of French democracy; in Finland, gender equality was regarded as a means to bring the expertise of both women and men to the benefit of the whole society. Furthermore, in both countries the promotion of gender equality was based on the harmonious cooperation of women and men and the temporal dimension of "nearly achieved" gender equality. In this kind of a context, gender equality served as a means towards the wider national ends, and there was little room to discuss the aspects of power and agency with regard to gender equality. However, the internationalisation of equality politics, as well as the conflicting interpretations of gender equality in the national political arenas, calls into question the existence of clearly defined and immutable boundaries of "Finnish" and "French" gender equality. At the same time, the rules of the game in politics, including the meaning of French republicanism and Finnish "expert oriented" politics were contested. In this way, the new equality legislation and the preceding political processes played a part in the transformation of the limits of gender equality, politics and citizenship.

The range expansion of the European map butterfly in Finland

Climate change will influence the living conditions of all life on Earth. For some species the change in the environmental conditions that has occurred so far has already increased the risk of extinction, and the extinction risk is predicted to increase for large numbers of species in the future. Some species may have time to adapt to the changing environmental conditions, but the rate and magnitude of the change are too great to allow many species to survive via evolutionary changes. Species responses to climate change have been documented for some decades. Some groups of species, like many insects, respond readily to changes in temperature conditions and have shifted their distributions northwards to new climatically suitable regions. Such range shifts have been well documented especially in temperate zones. In this context, butterflies have been studied more than any other group of species, partly for the reason that their past geographical ranges are well documented, which facilitates species-climate modelling and other analyses. The aim of the modelling studies is to examine to what extent shifts in species distributions can be explained by climatic and other factors. Models can also be used to predict the future distributions of species. In this thesis, I have studied the response to climate change of one species of butterfly within one geographically restricted area. The study species, the European map butterfly (Araschnia levana), has expanded rapidly northwards in Finland during the last two decades. I used statistical and dynamic modelling approaches in combination with field studies to analyse the effects of climate warming and landscape structure on the expansion. I studied possible role of molecular variation in phosphoglucose isomerase (PGI), a glycolytic enzyme affecting flight metabolism and thereby flight performance, in the observed expansion of the map butterfly at two separate expansion fronts in Finland. The expansion rate of the map butterfly was shown to be correlated with the frequency of warmer than average summers during the study period. The result is in line with the greater probability of occurrence of the second generation during warm summers and previous results on this species showing greater mobility of the second than first generation individuals. The results of a field study in this thesis indicated low mobility of the first generation butterflies. Climatic variables alone were not sufficient to explain the observed expansion in Finland. There are also problems in transferring the climate model to new regions from the ones from which data were available to construct the model. The climate model predicted a wider distribution in the south-western part of Finland than what has been observed. Dynamic modelling of the expansion in response to landscape structure suggested that habitat and landscape structure influence the rate of expansion. In southern Finland the landscape structure may have slowed down the expansion rate. The results on PGI suggested that allelic variation in this enzyme may influence flight performance and thereby the rate of expansion. Genetic differences of the populations at the two expansion fronts may explain at least partly the observed differences in the rate of expansion. Individuals with the genotype associated with high flight metabolic rate were most frequent in eastern Finland, where the rate of range expansion has been highest.