Browsing by Subject "http://www.yso.fi/onto/yso/p8958"
Now showing items 1-3 of 3
-
(2019)Finland is considered one of the best countries in the world in regards gender equality. In today’s Finland, women are more educated than men and they vote more actively. However, women are a still a minority in the Finnish parliament, and are less likely to serve as ministers as well as in other powerful political positions. Furthermore, there are large variations among Finnish political parties when it comes to the proportion of woman parliamentarians. The Finnish Centre Party is one of the least balanced political parties in Finland when it comes to the proportion of female parliamentarians. However, there are great regional differences. This Master’s Thesis is a case study that aims to explain what causes these regional differences. First, the study explores how women’s political representation has developed in different constituencies over time when it comes to the number of elected female parliamentarians. Starting from the 1991 election until the 2015 election, the quantitative overview of the constituencies shows that there are substantial differences between the electoral constituencies. These show in gender parity of elected parliamentarians, as well as the share of the votes that female candidates have received for their party’s list. Furthermore, constituencies differ when it comes to the turnover in the composition of the group of elected parliamentarians. The first part of the study also addressed constituencies’ differing trends in regards to women’s representation – some constituencies were more gender balanced, others more male dominated. Based on the first part of the study, three case studies are selected for in depth case studies: Kymi, Oulu and Central Finland. The case studies are explorative in nature and conducted by interviewing central Centre Party actors, parliamentarians and candidates who have experience in the workings of the regional party organization. Interviews are analysed by using thematic analysis. Based on the interviews it is clear that while all Centre Party organisations have the same formal rules, the list formation process, the regional practises and the electoral setting are different in all three constituencies. The study provides support to many findings of previous studies. In accordance with previous feminist institutionalist research, the supply of candidates seems to be a challenge for the Centre Party, but according to the interviewees the supply of woman candidates is a challenge in all three constituencies. Therefore, it is unlikely that the supply of candidates could explain regional differences. A major difference between the constituencies is their electoral setting and the role of regional party organisation and actives. Based on the interviews it seems that in the Kymi constituency, the constituency with the fewest female parliamentarians, internal competition is less equal as the incumbent parliamentarians have a strong position within the Centre Party organisation. The setting changes when an incumbent parliamentarian steps aside. When an elected parliamentarian steps down, it creates a situation where more voters and supporters are available for newcomers. It seems, however, that female candidates have not succeeded in inheriting supporters from the relinquishing parliamentarians.
-
(2024)The thesis examines how human rights were understood in Finnish politics from 1960 to 2023. It explores how the discussion about human rights has changed over time, which issues have been framed as human rights questions and the differences between political parties. The topic is analyzed through a conceptual historical approach, focusing on the controversies and historical development surrounding the concept of human rights. Party programs are used as the primary source material. Sentences containing the term human rights were extracted and then analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The thesis also compares the human rights issues highlighted by political parties with the themes raised by Amnesty International's Finland section. The thesis argues that the history of the concept of human rights can be divided into three periods named after Reinhart Koselleck's analytical concepts of historical processes. The concept was slowly politicized between 1960 and 1995. The Cold War and it’s ending significantly influenced the Finnish discourse on human rights. From 1996 to 2009, the concept was democratized, meaning it was used frequently and broadly by various parties. From 2010 to 2023, the concept was ideologized, allowing for discussion of increasingly diverse ideological issues under its umbrella. Initially, human rights were mostly discussed in the context of foreign policy, but over time the discussion expanded to issues concerning domestic and even municipal politics. Human rights also came to encompass corporate responsibility, healthcare, and the rights of various minorities. The demands presented by the parties regarding human rights policies also became more concrete over time. As a research result, it is clear that each party emphasized certain aspects of human rights that are core issues to their policies. Through the concept of human rights, they also sought to legitimize politically controversial goals. The parties were categorized based on the number of mentions and the political issues they framed as human rights questions. Clear groupings emerged: right-wing parties (National Coalition, Centre, and the Swedish People's Party), which often spoke of human rights from a values-based perspective, and the red-green parties (Social Democrats, Greens, and Left Alliance), which used the concept most extensively and diversely in various themes. The Christian Democrats also frequently used the concept, linking it to conservative values. The Finns Party used the concept the least and often associated it with anti-immigration sentiments, also uniquely questioning the concept of human rights by making it a target and a tool of political disputes. The concept of human rights became a Koselleckian basic concept in the early 2000s, when its use became widespread. A basic concept refers to the idea that it is difficult to imagine political discourse without the concept of human rights. This change was underpinned by international developments that Finland joined somewhat belatedly. So far, there is no indication that the discourse on human rights is subsiding or that the political significance of the concept is diminishing.
-
(2020)This master’s thesis investigates the dynamics between the climate movement and Finnish political parties in 2019. The climate movement mobilization overlapped two elections in Finland: the parliamentary elections in April and the European parliamentary elections in May. The research focuses on developments in the relationship before, during and after the elections, which will be analysed using the contentious politics approach and electoral contention mechanisms by Tilly, McAdam and Tarrow. This thesis uses a case study research design to examine the distinctive circumstances in which a global mobilization wave overlaps with two elections. The main set of data consists of all public tweets in Finnish twitter, which mention either ‘ilmastolakko’ (climate strike) or ‘#nytonpakko’ (#actnow) and were published in 2019. The tweets are collected using search engine technology and processed by extracting four datasets of tweets sent out by Finnish parliament members. The data is further investigated using various methods, such as network analysis. Statistics collected by the Finnish police force and survey data collected by researchers in climate protests are used to support the analysis. The analysis showed that the dynamics of the interaction between the climate movement and the political parties in Finland changed throughout 2019. Before the parliamentary elections in April 2019, the climate movement formed mutually beneficial electoral alliances with the Green League and the Left Alliance. The political parties took distance from the movement after the elections. A responsive mobilization of the climate movement after the elections showed increasing criticism towards politicians. Other parties did not significantly change their position towards the movement after the elections, although the Finns Party slightly increased the amount of criticism and the other parties slightly decreased the amount of support shown towards the movement. The developments in the movement-party relations were apparent in many ways: Indicators of the mechanisms of interaction were changes in the number of tweets published by MPs, the contents of the tweets, frequency and scale of climate protests and the support or criticism from the climate movement towards the political parties. The two waves of mobilization in Helsinki was supplemented by other types of mobilization, such as the launch of the ‘Korvaamaton’- campaign of development, climate and environmental organizations. This thesis shows that social media is a venue of movement-party interactions in more open media systems, where political elites transcend to Twitter networks. The existence of virtual political elites can have implications for social movements and the collective ‘conflict and alliance’ structure of politics. Further research should be conducted on the other venues in which movement-party interactions may occur and on other case studies, where social movement mobilization and elections occur simultaneously.
Now showing items 1-3 of 3