Browsing by Author "Päivärinta, Pauliina"

The crisis of party in political science refers to political parties’ inability to perform their functions in representative democracy. Parties seem to have lost their connection to their supporters as the ideological cleavages of the modern society have faded. However, despite their difficulties, political parties have maintained their institutionally established status in western democracies. The aim of this thesis is to study the challenges of political parties in contemporary Finland and how they have been able to respond to difficulties they have encountered. This thesis was carried out as a qualitative case study by examining the challenges one Finnish party has encountered and its responses to the crisis. The examined case is the National Coalition Party in the first decade of the 21st century. In Finnish context the case represents the leading edge of change and in Western European context it can be seen as a typical case. The research data consists of discussions on the party’s challenges and renewal, minutes of meetings, strategy reports and newspaper articles, the interview of the party secretary and the campaign material. Data and methodological triangulation has been used in order to describe the case as clearly as possible, which in turn could be used as a basis for understanding the responses of Finnish political parties to the crisis of party in general. The main challenges for the National Coalition Party according to its own experience are related to its heterogeneity and faulty image, which made the message of the party unconvincing. In its own view the problems could be solved by responding to the changing society by renewing its politics. The key improvements implemented were renewed ideology, strategy and communications. The renewals risk, however, the authenticity of its message and thus the party has emphasized its ideological roots. The case studied reveals that the need of renewals is relevant to all political parties whose existence relies on social cleavages. At the same time they have to legitimate the changes and stay connected to their traditional ideology and constituency by declaring the authenticity behind their actions.