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Voting advice applications (VAA) have supported Finnish voters for over 20 years in their voting decisions in general elections. Most Finnish VAAs are planned and provided by the media, and they are based on matching opinions of individual candidates with an individual VAA users before elections. Nowadays, in Finland, VAAs are important for almost all age groups. Among the youngest voters VAAs are viewed as the most important source of information to support voting decisions.

The book provides up-to-date and comprehensive picture over the role and significance of VAAs in the Finnish political system and in the political communication arena. Research topics deal also with VAA journalism and how candidates perceive VAAs. Research data and data materials in use are wide-ranging. They range from survey data sets to questions of VAAs and from interviews of candidates and VAA producers to media content about VAAs. Theoretical research questions are mostly related to the democratic value of VAAs. This perspective is central also in the end of the book, which opens possible future pathways for the VAAs." - "Vaalikoneilla on Suomessa yli 20 vuoden historia. Suurin osa suomalaisista vaalikoneista on median toteuttamia ehdokasvaalikoneita. Niiden merkitys vaalitiedon lähteenä on kohonnut maassamme merkittäväksi lähes kaikissa äänioikeutettujen ikäryhmissä. Nuorimmille äänestäjille vaalikoneet ovat jo merkittävin äänestyspäätösten tietolähde.

Teos tarjoaa ajantasaisen ja kattavan kuvan vaalikoneiden nykyisestä asemasta suomalaisessa poliittisessa järjestelmässä ja viestintäkentässä. Uusia tutkimuksellisia näkökulmia ovat vaalikonejournalismi sekä ehdokkaiden näkemykset vaalikoneista. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu valitsijakyselyistä, vaalikoneiden analyysista, vaalikoneita koskevista uutisista sekä ehdokkaiden, kampanjavastaavien ja vaalikoneiden tekijöiden haastatteluista. Kirja lähestyy vaalikoneita erilaisista demokratianäkökohdista ja pohtii laajasti myös vaalikoneiden kehittämismahdollisuuksia."

The Centre Party of Finland was represented in almost all cabinets for decades, and it often held the post of prime minister during the reign of President Urho Kekkonen. When Kekkonen's deteriorating health forced him to resign in 1981, the Centre Party, formerly the Agrarian Union, was in front of the crisis. The party was deeply divided along the lines of who would be the best candidate to succeed Kekkonen. The schism had prevailed for years, and contemporaries suspected the party would split up or at least lose its dominant position in Finnish politics. Besides, the numbers of core supporters making up the party, agrarians, were constantly diminishing. In addition, the Finnish party system was in a state of flux. The Finnish People's Democratic League was in a deep downward spiral, while the Conservative Party's support was ascendant. The power struggle between the three 'big' parties, the Centre Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Conservative Party, was fierce. The study describes and analyses how the Center Party survived the challenges it faced. How was the cohesion of the party rebuilt and maintained? How did the Centre Party manage to survive the inter-party contests and end up being the strongest party in the elections of 1991? The study is firmly based on source material from the party organization of the Centre Party and other relevant political actors, such as President Mauno Koivisto. The book provides new information on both Finnish domestic and foreign politics and the power struggles among the parties and leading political figures.