ESA Torino 2013: What is Finnish about The Finns Party? Political Culture and Populism

What is Finnish about the Finns Party?

Political Culture and Populism

30.8.2013 Tuukka Ylä-Anttila, University of Helsinki 1

“Big Three” parties since the 1980s

•  2007 1.  Centre 24.7% 2.  Social Democrats 24.5% 3.  Conservatives 18.6% Others 32.2% (Finns Party 4.1%)

•  2011 1.  Conservatives 20.8% 2.  Social Democrats 19.1% 3.   The Finns 19.1% 4.  Centre 15.8%


Finns Party breakthrough in 2011

•  Perussuomalaiset (PS), “The Finns”: – A conservative, nationalist populist party, successor

to Finnish Rural Party (SMP, 1959–1995)

•  Background of victory – Political corruption scandal 2008 – 2011 – Euro crisis –  Immigration debate


Finnish specificity?

•  Populist uprisings all over Europe – How do...

•  Finnish political culture and •  the Finns Party’s predecessor, SMP (1959–1995)

–  ...affect how populism takes shape in Finland?

•  Fertile breeding ground but two factions


“Sometimes I feel politics is so complicated I don’t really understand what is happening”


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15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Finland Norway Denmark

Populist party voters

Other voters

•  “Parties have drifted further and further away from ordinary people’s issues” 70–80% •  “I have no say whatsoever over what the government or parliament decides”~60%

–  (Paloheimo 2012, 340; data ESS 2008)

“Sometimes” or “often”

Culture of consensus

•  “In the Finnish data efficiency, rationality and expertise were emphasized. Political disputes were often handled as neutral technical facts” (Luhtakallio & Ylä-Anttila 2011, emphasis added)

è A fertile breeding ground for populism.


Finnish rural populism European radical right

Influences SMP legacy European

Elites (enemies) Finnish political/economic elite Multiculturalism, EU

Welfare policy Left Right

Main issues Social policy Anti-immigration

Literature Populism (Canovan 1999; Helander 1971; Ionescu & Gellner 1969; Taggart 2004)

Radical right populism (Eatwell 2003; Hainsworth 2008; Mudde 2000, 2004, 2007)


•  Open Data: Helsingin Sanomat Voting Advice Application (HS VAA) 2011 –  31 multiple-choice questions w/ comments –  85% free-text response rate

“Some have money up to their necks while others struggle from week to week in food handout queues.” (M, 27) “I don’t see differences in incomes as a signal of injustice as such. The problem is not that some earn plenty, but that [...] working doesn’t pay off because of taxation and because of income redistribution funded by taxes. [...] I believe it is good that a person can get wealthy by honest work [...] This should not be prevented by unduly hard taxation.” (M, 39)



What’s next?

•  Manifestos & party newspaper, 2007 and 2011: – Less “left-populist” rhetoric – More anti-immigrant rhetoric – EU: not just threat to sovereignty, but Southern

countries “taking our money” è  Two factions converging as welfare chauvinism?


The old parties are “cheating the pensioners” like they “cheated the students”, their representatives “raised their own salaries” and voted to “lower the taxes on the rich”. They are “the parties in power who only remember the rich, the stock option predators and the EU big spenders”, and the “lords who laugh, with their grilled meats and champagne glasses in hand, on the upper mezzanine”, while “the people stumble on the stairs of democracy from one election to another, never making it to the top.” They are teamed up with “EU and domestic bureaucracy”, and their policies support business elites, described as “Big Money”, “rentiers, machine millionaires and cognac drinkers”. (2007)


...Finland “must stop shovelling money under the palm trees” in Southern Europe, ...“You lied and cheated to get into the Eurozone [...] You knew you were cheating.” ... “the innocent, like the Finns, are made to pay for the silliness of the others.” “We were tricked into giving money to Greece and Ireland.” “The interests of the Fatherland have been forgotten”; “You pay!”; “Where you see the EU, you see a problem – where you see the Euro, you see a catastrophe”. (2011)


Bibliography •  Canovan, Margaret 1999: Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy. Political Studies 47(1), 2–16. •  Eatwell, Roger 2003: Ten Theories of the Extreme Right. In: Merkl, P. & Weinberg, L. (eds.): Right-Wing Extremism in the Twenty-

First Century. London: Frank Cass, 47–73.

•  Hainsworth, Paul 2008: The Extreme Right in Western Europe. London: Routledge. •  Helander, Voitto 1971 (ed.): Vennamolaisuus populistisena joukkoliikkeenä. Hämeenlinna: Arvi A. Karisto Osakeyhtiön kirjapaino. •  HS VAA 2011 = Helsingin Sanomat 6 April 2011. HS:n vaalikone on nyt avointa tietoa. Online: http://blogit.hs.fi/hsnext/hsn-

vaalikone-on-nyt-avointa-tietoa [Viewed 16.3.2012]

•  Ionescu, Ghita & Gellner, Ernest (eds.) 1969: Populism. Its Meanings and National Characteristics. London: Wiedenfeld and Nicholson. •  Luhtakallio, Eeva & Ylä-Anttila, Tuomas 2011: Julkisen oikeuttamisen analyysi sosiologisena tutkimusmenetelmänä. Sosiologia 48(1),

34–51.

•  Luhtakallio, Eeva & Ylä-Anttila, Tuukka [forthcoming]: Polarizing Gender Equality Politics in Finland: The Finns Party Effect. In: Bitzan, Renate; Köttig, Michaela & Petö, Andrea (eds.): Gender and Far Right Politics in Europe.

•  Mudde, Cas 2000: The Ideology of the Extreme Right. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

•  Mudde, Cas 2004: The Populist Zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39(4), 541–563. •  Mudde, Cas 2007: Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. •  Paloheimo, Heikki 2012: Populismi puoluejärjestelmän vedenjakajana. In: Borg, Sami (ed.): Muutosvaalit 2011. Oikeusministeriön

selvityksiä ja ohjeita 16/2012. Oikeusministeriö (Ministry of Justice), 324–346. •  Taggart, Paul 2004: Populism and representative politics in contemporary Europe. Journal of Political Ideologies 9(3), 269–288. •  Ylä-Anttila, Tuomas & Ylä-Anttila, Tuukka [forthcoming]: Exploiting the Discursive Opportunity Created by the Euro Crisis:

The Rise of The Finns Party.


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ESA Torino 2013: What is Finnish about The Finns Party? Political Culture and Populism