$Unique_ID{COW01338} $Pretitle{367} $Title{Finland The State} $Subtitle{} $Author{Riitta da Costa} $Affiliation{Otava Publishing Co.} $Subject{government courts parliament president party council court local finnish finland} $Date{1990} $Log{Table 18.*0133801.tab } Country: Finland Book: Facts About Finland Author: Riitta da Costa Affiliation: Otava Publishing Co. Date: 1990 The State Constitution and form of government Since 1919 Finland has been a republic. Fundamental constitutional laws are those concerning the form of government (1919) and the parliamentary system (1928). Since the enacting of the form of government in 1919 there have been no essential changes in the Finnish constitution. Regulations concerning the structure and powers of the highest organs of government and the constitutional rights of citizens are contained in the constitution. Political power is in the hands of the nation, represented by Parliament. The Parliament Act contains more detailed regulations concerning the structure of Parliament and the system of election. Two hundred members of Parliament are elected by direct vote for four years, but the President of Finland has the right to dissolve Parliament before the end of such a period and order new elections. For the elections the country is divided into 14 electoral districts, from which members of Parliament are elected by proportional representation using the d'Hondt system. In addition, one member from the self-governing province of Aland Islands is elected. Legislative power is vested in Parliament acting in conjunction with the President. Parliament decides upon the budget and supervises the actions and administration of the government. According to the constitution, the highest executive power is vested in the President, who is elected by the nation for a period of six years. The election has been performed by an electoral college of 301 chosen by proportional representation. The new law affecting the election of the president has changed the procedure in favour of a direct popular vote and it was used for the first time in the elections of 1988. There are two ballot papers: one is used to vote for a presidential candidate, while the other is used to vote for a member of the selection committee. If no single presidential candidate has a majority, the winner is chosen by the selection committee, according to the established procedure. The formal powers of the President are extensive. He presents laws and government proposals on other matters to Parliament, he ratifies laws, issues statutes, appoints top civil servants and judges, leads foreign policy and is Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces. Besides the President, the constitution provides for a Council of State or Cabinet presided over by the Prime Minister for the general government of the country. Government and administration The President of Finland and the Council of State together form the Finnish Government. The President appoints the Prime Minister and other ministers, who must enjoy the confidence of Parliament. This provision makes the Government responsible politically to Parliament, although the President himself is not responsible to Parliament. Those meetings of the Government where the President decides government matters that come within his sphere are led by him. Government meetings where other matters are decided are led by the Prime Minister. In making his decisions the President is not bound to consider the opinions of ministers or even a majority of ministers, but in practice his decisions have almost without exception followed ministerial thinking. Over the years there has been considerable variation in the actual use of presidential power, but on the whole the Finnish system of government has remained parliamentary. The Council of State is divided into 13 Ministries, each of them in charge of its own administrative field. The Council of State decides the most important matters in general meetings. Other matters are left for the Ministries to decide themselves. The Council of State and the Ministries are not directly responsible for all government administration. Various kinds of central boards operate under several of the Ministries. These are collegiate bodies, in which a "college" of top civil servants wields the highest power. For regional administration the country is divided into 12 provinces (laani) (1988). The general administrative authority in each province is the provincial board, led by a governor appointed by the President. The provincial board supervises administration in the area, and is responsible for many regional administrative tasks. It is also the highest police authority in the province. Under the provincial board are the local administrative authorities: sheriffs (nimismies) in 225 districts, and magistrates in the so-called "old" cities. For historical reasons, the province of Aland has a special status. Since 1920 it has had a fairly extensive autonomy, based on laws of self-government (the present law is from 1951). The citizens of Aland elect by means of proportional representation a Provincial Parliament of 30 members, who in turn elect the Provincial Government. There is local self-government separate from the state administration. For this purpose the country is divided into 461 municipalities (kunta) (1987), 84 of which are cities. Parties The political parties are a vital part of the Finnish political system. They represent different groups and competing trends of opinion in the nation, they organize election campaigns and fill government posts where political power is wielded with their representatives. Post-war party politics has been characterized by competition between rural areas and towns. Nevertheless, the Agrarians (now the Centre Party) and the Social Democrats have formed several coalition governments together with smaller parties in recent decades. Ever since the beginning of Finnish independence, there has been a non-socialist majority in Parliament almost without interruption. The political left is represented by the Finnish Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Finnish People's Democratic League (SKDL) and the Democratic Alternative (Deva). The Finnish Communist party is divided into supporters of SKDL and Deva. There are several non-socialist parties. The traditional conservative party is the National Coalition Party (KOK), whose support grew considerably during the 1970s along with the increase in "white-collar employees". The Centre Party (KESK) (the Agrarian Union up to 1965) finds its greatest support in North and East Finland and among the rural population. The Liberal People's Party became a member organization of the Centre Party in 1982 but is independent again. The Swedish People's Party (RKP) represents the Swedish-speaking minority. Newer non-socialist parties are the Finnish Rural party (SMP), which broke off from the Agrarian Union in 1959, the Finnish Christian League (SKL) (in Parliament since 1970) and, farthest right in the party spectrum, the Constitutional Right-Wing Party (POP). The newest political group are the "Greens" (Ecologists), somewhere between socialists and non-socialists. After the 1987 parliamentary elections they have four seats. [See Table 18.: Party Support in Parliamentary Elections 1987] Local government According to the constitution, local government should be based on self-government by the people. More detailed regulations concerning local government are given in the Local Government Act (1976) prescribed by Parliament. The same law applies to both rural municipalities and cities. According to this Act, it is the task of the local authorities (kunta) on their own responsibility to perform the functions that belong to self-government and those otherwise decreed by law. They are responsible inter alia for schools, health and sickness care, planning and building, and social care. They have the right to tax their members. The State supports the local authorities' budgets with considerable aid and participation, partially graded according to the means of the municipality. The State in return retains broad powers of control over the local authorities, which naturally limits local self-government. The central decision-making organ of the local authorities is the Municipal Council, elected by direct and proportional representation, with 17 to 85 members depending on the size of the municipality. In the elections the whole municipality is a single electoral district. Because of this, relatively small political groups can get their representatives on to the Council. The Council elects its own chairman. The executive organ is the Municipal Board, proportionally elected by the Council for two years at a time. In addition, the Council elects a large number of statutory and voluntary boards for various tasks of administration. Because of the method of election, all parties are represented on the Municipal Board and other boards in the same proportion as in the Council. Tens of thousands of citizens participate in the various responsible functions of self government. At the head of the local government machinery and responsible to the Municipal Board is the Municipal Manager. He is chosen by the Council, and in towns is called the City Manager. For tasks involving co-operation between several municipalities - such as health and sickness care, vocational education and district planning - the municipalities can establish separate inter-municipal corporations. There are about 400 of these. Judicial system According to the constitution, justice is administered in Finland by independent courts. Their independence is primarily based on the fact that judges virtually cannot be dismissed, and that the judicial system itself vitally influences the selection of judges. The courts are divided on the one hand into general and special courts for civil and criminal cases, and general and special courts for administrative cases. There are three grades of general court. Courts of the first instance are known as Circuit Courts, and in the "old cities" City Courts. The next instance is the Court of Appeal. The highest juridical authority rests with the Supreme Court. Litigation in administrative matters in handled in lower instances by provincial courts. The highest instance is the Supreme Administrative Court. Special courts include courts martial, land partition courts, water rights courts, the insurance court, the labour court, the marketing court and the High Court of Impeachment. The judicial system is linked with the political powers in that the President of Finland appoints the Presidents of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, and on the basis of the nominations of these courts, the members of them. The Presidents of the Courts of Appeal are appointed by the President of Finland according to the nominations of each Court itself. The Supreme Court appoints the Presidents of the Circuit Courts and City Courts. The election of other members of the City Courts is done by the City Council, according to an old privilege of the Burghers' Estate. The Chancellor of Justice is the highest public prosecutor. Next come the Provincial Prosecutors, and in the first instance the Sheriffs and City Public Prosecutors. The Prison Administration is responsible for enforcement of prison sentences. The Execution Office enforces lawsuit judgements and fines, and executes collection of unpaid taxes and other public receivables. The observing of the law is supervised by the Chancellor of Justice, who attends Cabinet meetings and is appointed by the President of Finland, and an Ombudsman elected by Parliament, whose position and tasks are laid down in the constitution. They have extremely broad powers to observe the actions of the courts and the authorities, and to intervene if necessary. Citizens who have suffered injustice at the hands of the authorities may complain directly to them.