The cornerstone of unity

7 COALITION GOVERNMENTS
At the beginning of 20th century the Grand Duchy of Finland shifted from a diet of four estates to a democratic 
parliament (innovation no. 1), and new provisions were enacted for universal and equal parliamentary elections. 
With regards 
to women’s suffrage (innovation no. 9), Finland went further than any other country, but having said 
that the general models and elements of electoral legislation were adopted from abroad. 
It would be interesting to analyse how important it was that the central figures of the public law elite and 
scholars of constitutional law, such as K.J. Ståhlberg and Robert Hermannson, had adopted their perceptions 
mainly from St. Petersburg. In the European context, they were more orientated towards the continental German-
French way of thinking than the Anglo-Saxon political system. According to tradition, this orientation was greatly 
influenced by the language skills they had developed in the course of their education. 
The most decisive factor was to opt for proportional representation, a mode of election that has persisted and 
consolidated our multiparty system. The British “winner-takes- all” system with electoral constituencies, in which 
each party only fields one candidate, would have resulted in a completely different combination of political parties. 
Party politics have naturally changed with the times over the centuries, but they have a relatively stable base 
and, consequently, a strong impact. No political party has had an absolute majority in the Finnish Parliament since 
the country became independent. On the other hand the parliamentary principle is written into the Constitution in 
that it is stated that the government must have the confidence of the majority of the parliament. The governing 
parties have therefore always had to cooperate with other parties, and the occasional minority governments have 
needed allies in critical situations. The provisions relating to the stipulated majority have also been highly significant. 
In earlier times it was common for governments to change. In the 1970s it was calculated that the average 
duration of a government in independent Finland was approximately one year, but during the last 25 years we have 
got used to majority governments that sit for the whole electoral period. Many of these coalitions have however been 
ideologically quite confusing. 
Governmental responsibility has on occasions been jointly borne by two apparently opposite political 
movements, and populist parties have not been shunned as they have in other European countries. It might be 
said that an adequate dose of responsibility has had a surprisingly calming effect, however, for during the last 
decades there have been no well-organised, broad-based extremist movements in Finland. 
In spring 1987 the President of Finland Mauno Koivisto appointed a coalition government based on the 
cooperation of the Social Democratic Party and the National Coalition Party. I will not evaluate its achievements 
and mistakes in this context, but with regards to Finnish po43 litical rules it prepared the way for a more democratic 
and parliamentary transparent government policy. Its mission was to demonstrate that party-political cooperation 
could be based on future visions instead of past experiences. 
It has been almost ten decades since the Finnish Civil War, but its horrors still live in the collective memory of 
our nation. However, the desire to take care of our common matters has been stronger than any ideological 
divisions and has ensured the stable development of our country. Coalition governments are therefore a central