Governing Competition Society.
Political Institutions and the Finnish Market Regime
Academy of Finland “Power and Society in Finland” – research program
The project studies the political preconditions and consequences of the Finnish market regime. Using comparative case studies, the project argues, first, that several changes in the central political institutions were needed to implement reforms and, second, that these changes reorganised the space of governing and political power.
The individual studies show that market mechanisms and the generalized emphasis on efficiency, strategy and leadership as principles of government paradoxically entail a more thoroughgoing politicization of government than the bureaucratic rationality they were designed to replace. Here the project stands in contrast to the application oriented literature that often embraces the reforms, but also to those who criticize the reforms for substituting market forces for political judgment.
Research and Teaching 