Poliittisen valtiosäännön kehittäminen

Huomioita valtiollisten käytäntöjen ja valtiosäännön suhteesta

Authors

• Jaakko Nousiainen

Abstract

stitutional framework, the political group structure, political culture, the situation and the personality of political leaders? To what extent is it possible to steer the political process into desired directions? An answer to the latter question is sought by dividing political practice into three different levels. The national political system as such experiences »historical changes» tied to many social determinants. These are most difficult to control by partial amendments of the constitution or its interpretation or by trying to direct political practice into some sort of framework. Middle level institutional relations change more rapidly and are more susceptible to manipulative action but they are basically components within the over-all system. The microlevel is formed by separate decisionmaking sectors where a single actor is able to adjust behavior or two actors make changes in their interaction models. The effort towards constitutional reform in Finland has now come back to this grass-roots level. But it seems that in public discussion there is a tendency to give individual constitutional provisions an exaggeratedly real or symbolic values as instruments of system change. 1