Suchergebnisse

Analyzing the governance of the COVID crisis in Finland, this article shows that in terms of organization and communication the strategy combined elements of centralized leadership, ministerial dominance, and scientific expertise. The government adopted an uncertainty avoidance approach in mid-March 2020, declaring the state of emergency and imposing strict anti-pandemic measures. The first wave of the pandemic was characterized by a sense of national urgency both in terms of policy and public opinion, which appreciated the active leadership of the government. Subsequently the government shifted to a more decentralized pandemic governance under normal legislation, with targeted regional solutions favored more instead of nation-wide measures. This produced occasional tensions between regional authorities and the government. The Prime Minister's Office was in charge, but the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health retained most of the actual decision-making and horizontal coordination as well as governmental communication created challenges. The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare was highly visible throughout the crisis, but occasionally the views of the health authorities and the executive differed.

In research on mediatisation, the political system is often described as a victim of media logics. According to this theory, the logics of politics are overruled by media logics, and the political institutions become dependent on the media. This chapter questions this dichotomy between the two logics and asks to what extent media logics are used by political actors to achieve political goals. Based on the results from interviews in four countries, the relationship between politics and the media is discussed from both perspectives. The chapter also discusses different logics and functions of the media and describes a complex picture of interdependency and mutual interests. It concludes that new types of political instrumentalisation of the media are developed in the close relationship between the news media and their sources in government. ; Go to the full book to find a version of this chapter tagged for accessibility.

Drawing on 21 interviews with political and media elites, this chapter argues that political executive-media relationships in Finland are characterised by a system of interdependence between politicians and journalists. Political advisors play a central role, while the civil servant media staff seek to maintain a neutral position. One distinct feature of the Finnish system is a high degree of access to political sources. Alongside this openness, there is a culture of informal interaction, as the management of pre-public information is crucial for politicians, journalists and civil servants. Relationships between journalists and political sources are generally good, with both sides describing a shift towards more professional and ethical conduct. Occasional antagonisms do arise nonetheless, with essentially each prime minister having phases of poor media relations at some point. While social media allows politicians to bypass the media, it is still far from surpassing the importance of traditional media coverage. ; Go to the full book to find a version of this chapter tagged for accessibility.

AbstractGovernment responses to the Covid‐19 pandemic in the Nordic states—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—exhibit similarities and differences. This article investigates the extent to which crisis policymaking diverges from normal policymakingwithinthe Nordic countries and whether variationsbetweenthe countries are associated with the role of expertise and the level of politicization. Government responses are analyzed in terms of governance arrangements and regulatory instruments. Findings demonstrate some deviation from normal policymakingwithinand considerable variationbetweenthe Nordic countries, as Denmark, Finland, and to some extent Norway exhibit similar patterns with hierarchical command and control governance arrangements, while Iceland, in some instances, resembles the case of Sweden, which has made use of network‐based governance. The article shows that the higher the influence of experts, the more likely it is that the governance arrangement will be network‐based.