Eleven - Community engagement policies in the era of populism: Finland

Summary

Introduction

Finland, although performing excellently in international comparisons of social cohesion, has seen the steepest decrease in the level of trust in the government among all the OECD countries during the past decade (OECD Country Fact Sheet Finland, 2017). At the same time, rightwing populist rhetoric has strengthened and the populist movement has established its support in the political spectrum. For example, the True Finns party was established in 1995 as a conservative, Christiansocialistic, EU-critical movement placed in the political centre, but electoral victory in 2011 diversified its representatives in Parliament and gave visibility and voice to immigration-critical discourse, which turned the party towards nationalist right-wing populism. To transform Finnish democracy, participatory programmes have been created in order to reach out and engage different groups to join community development practices. These efforts stem both from the public authorities and the renewed Finnish Local Government Act of 2017, as well as from projects undertaken by civil society organisations (CSOs). Further, there is a long tradition of building civil society in Finland, which has often been based on the unique Finnish liberal adult education system. Yet growing inequality is currently deepening the polarisation in political participation. This chapter explores the ways of countering the polarisation and populism by supporting the political capabilities of communities and nurturing deliberative discussion.

The concept of populism in the Finnish context

The concept of populism is slippery. In general, it is a kind of political orientation or practice of policy making confronting the existing political order in the name of the ‘people’. Populism is characterised by exclusivist political principles and the denigration of political competitors, yet this strategy has always belonged to politics. Confrontation with other parties and unwillingness to compromise are the distinctive marks of populist parties, including the True Finns. The most important common denominator in discussions of the definition of populism seems to be the populists’ resistance to pluralism and their selectivity; that is, only a certain part of the nation represents the true people (Wiberg, 2011: 12; Muller, 2016: 37).