Semiperiferisen Suomen taloudellinen ja poliittinen kehitys

Authors

• Kari Nyyssölä

Abstract

The article deals with the Finnish development in the world economy from the world system perspective.
The examination focuses on the semi-peripheral stage and its reflections in the political
structure. Until the 1920’s Finland remained an agrarian and peripheral country but then, in the
1930’s, it transformed into a semi-periphery. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Finland went through a deep
economic and social change which eventually led, by the turn of the 1990’s at the latest, to a
transition into the core. The semi-peripheral stage was connected to the unstable political life in
Finland. In that era, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) led a victorious struggle against other antisystemic
(nationalist and communist) movements and finally against the Agrarian League (the
current Centre Party). Since the late 1960’s, SDP reached almost a hegemonic position in Finnish
political life for about the next three decades. Together with strong presidential power, the SDP
hegemony stabilized the Finnish political life and promoted the transformation from the semi-periphery
to the core.