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Finland Interest Groups
Interest group politics in Finland was managed
primarily by
the large market-sector organizations that represented
labor and
management. By the mid-1980s, about 85 percent of the work
force,
both blue-collar and white-collar, belonged to four labor
federations encompassing about 100 labor unions. The
largest and
oldest was SAK, which united the approximately 1 million
members,
mainly blue-collar, of twenty-eight unions. SAK dated from
1907
and was close to the SDP, but it had within it several
unions
dominated by communists. The Confederation of Salaried
Employees
and Civil Servants (Toimihenkilö- ja Virkamiesjarjestöjen
Keskusliitto--TVK) consisted of 14 unions with about
370,000
members who voted for a variety of left-wing and
right-wing
parties. The Central Organization of Professional
Associations in
Finland (Akava) was made up of 45 unions, in which 210,000
members--white-collar professionals--voted mainly for
conservative parties. The Confederation of Technical
Employees'
Organizations in Finland (Suomen Teknisten
Toimihenkilöjarjestöjen Keskusliitto--STTK) united 15
unions, in
which 130,00 members--lower-level white-collar
employees--split
their votes among all parties. Representing the interests
of
farmers and close to the Kesk was the Confederation of
Agricultural Producers (Maataloustuottajain
Keskusliitto--MTK),
with about 300,000 members. Representing industry and
management
were the Confederation of Finnish Employers (Suomen
Työnantajain
Keskusliitto--STK), made up of twenty-eight member
organizations
representing 6,000 firms, and the Confederation of
Commerce
Employers (Liiketyönantajain Keskusliitto--LTK) including
nearly
7,000 firms; firms belonging to the STK and the LTK had
some
800,000 employees in 1985.
These organizations could speak for the bulk of
Finland's
work force and business firms, and, since the first of a
series
of comprehensive incomes policy agreements was concluded
in 1968,
they had come to rival the government in determining how
the
country's affairs were to be managed. The settlements,
arranged
generally at two-year intervals, frequently involved not
only
wages and working conditions but also social welfare
programs
that required legislation for their realization. This
obliged the
governing coalition and the other parties represented in
the
Eduskunta to be fully apprised of the terms of the
settlement.
The government itself provided officials to assist in
the
negotiations between labor and management. In 1971 it made
permanent the post of special negotiator for incomes
policy, and
a year later it created a board within the prime
minister's
office to assist this official. On occasion, when
negotiations
have gone poorly, the prime minister or the president has
intervened. The government also has facilitated the
incomes
agreements by providing expert advice on probable future
economic
conditions and on what the contending parties could
reasonably
demand. At appropriate times, leading officials and
politicians
have issued statements so that by the winter, when formal
negotiations began, there was a broadly accepted economic
framework within which these negotiations could take
place.
Outside the wage agreement system, social groups, or
interests, generally worked through the established
parties to
further their objectives through meetings, lobbying, and
other
means of voicing their concerns. To secure the support of
some
segments of the population, most political parties
organized
student, youth, and sports groups. Parties often devoted
as much
as one-third of their financial resources to their
auxiliary and
local branches.
Finnish women, like other groups, sought to further
their
interests mainly through the country's political and
economic
organizations. The parties took care that a good number of
their
leaders were women, and by the 1980s women made up about
onethird of the Eduskunta. Women were represented in
market-sector
organizations according to their occupations. The women's
movement was small; it did not play a significant role in
Finnish
political life, even though it had existed since the
1880s, when
the first organization involved in women's rights was
founded.
The two main women's organizations active in Finland in
the 1980s
were the Feminist Union (Naisasialiitto Unioni), dating
from
1892, and the informal collective, Feminists (Feministit),
founded in 1976. They were both apolitical, and their
membership,
though mainly from the educated middle class, contained
some
working-class women.
The Nordic committee system was a key forum in which
Finnish
interest groups, or concerned parties, made their views
known to
the government. The system had long been used in the
region to
gather a range of opinions on public matters. It consisted
of
committees, both temporary ad hoc organs formed to deal
with a
single question and permanent statutory bodies created to
handle
broad issues, that were composed of experts and
representatives
of affected interests. Thus, advocates of labor and
business,
experts from local and national government, and, when
appropriate, single-issue groups, could argue their cases.
A
committee report, if there was one, could be sent for
review to
concerned parties, and thereafter to a ministry, where its
findings might figure in a government ordinance or in a
legislative proposal.
Data as of December 1988
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