The model for parliaments in the future? The case of the Finnish Committee for the Future?

Authors

• David Arter

Abstract

This article was submitted to Politiikka mainly because there appears to be a regrettable paucity of recent empirical work on the Eduskunta. As Nousiainen, Anckar and others have contended, constitutional reform has promoted parliamentarism in Finland and yet research into the changing role of parliament appears conspicuous by its absence. The article, which is based principally on a postal questionnaire and personal interviews with its seventeen regular members, profiles a distinctive component of the Eduskunta – the Committee for the Future. Although it is not a routine part of the legislative process, it is argued that it may be characterised as an agenda-setting standing committee in that it canvasses, and contributes to setting a wider policy agenda that reflects the future challenges facing Finnish society.