Järjestystä vai itsehallintoa?

Vallan käsite Suomen hallitusmuotokeskustelussa 1918

Authors

• Iisa Räsänen

Abstract

Different possibilities of organizing the government of a newly independent state were thematized in the Finnish constitutional debate of 1918. In such a context various understandings of the concept of power were used as instruments of political struggle. Above all, democracy and firm governmental power were such nominations, possession of which was fought over. Both monarchists and republicans tried to adopt these concepts as their private weapons by interpreting their meanings and opposites in different ways. This article thematizes the constitutional debate as a linguistic-political struggle in its historical context by concentrating on different interpretations of power. It provides a new political understanding of the debate when compared to the traditional reading, which concentrates on dates, speakers and events instead of speeches and the use of language.