IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v37y2009i1p102-110.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Governance and political consumerism in Finnish energy policy-making

Author

Listed:
  • Ruostetsaari, Ilkka

Abstract

The research task in the study was, firstly, to analyse citizens' perceptions of the power structure underlying Finnish energy policy-making. Secondly, we analysed the role of civil society in the energy sector, addressing the question whether Finns feel that they can influence energy policy-making as citizens through general elections (civic participation) or as consumers via their own consumption choices (political consumerism). Methodologically, the study was based on postal survey conducted in 2007 among a random sample representing 18-75-year-old Finns (N=4000). According to the views expressed, the innermost core of the influence structure of Finland's energy policy-making today comprises only the Cabinet and Parliament, while the second circle is composed of energy-producer firms and big firms. The European Union, the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Trade and Industry belong to the third circle of influence. The power relations in Finland's energy sector have continued particularly stable since the late 1980s despite the liberalization and globalization of the energy markets. In order to influence energy policy-making, citizens consider their own consumption choices more useful than voting in elections or contacts with MPs, authorities and energy-producing companies. The least useful devices are radical environmental activism and participation in mass demonstrations.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruostetsaari, Ilkka, 2009. "Governance and political consumerism in Finnish energy policy-making," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 102-110, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:1:p:102-110
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301-4215(08)00398-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pineau, Pierre-Olivier & Hira, Anil & Froschauer, Karl, 2004. "Measuring international electricity integration: a comparative study of the power systems under the Nordic Council, MERCOSUR, and NAFTA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(13), pages 1457-1475, September.
    2. Ilkka Ruostetsaari, 2006. "Social Upheaval and Transformation of Elite Structures: The Case of Finland," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 54(1), pages 23-42, March.
    3. Ilkka Ruostetsaari, 2006. "Social Upheaval and Transformation of Elite Structures: The Case of Finland," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 54, pages 23-42, March.
    4. Bas Arts & Jan Tatenhove, 2004. "Policy and power: A conceptual framework between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ policy idioms," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 37(3), pages 339-356, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vainio, Annukka & Varho, Vilja & Tapio, Petri & Pulkka, Anna & Paloniemi, Riikka, 2019. "Citizens’ images of a sustainable energy transition," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 606-616.
    2. Chang, Chun-Ping & Wen, Jun & Dong, Minyi & Hao, Yu, 2018. "Does government ideology affect environmental pollutions? New evidence from instrumental variable quantile regression estimations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 386-400.
    3. Ilkka Ruostetsaari, 2010. "Changing Regulation and Governance of Finnish Energy Policy Making: New Rules but Old Elites?," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 27(3), pages 273-297, May.
    4. Lempinen, Hanna, 2019. "“Barely surviving on a pile of gold”: Arguing for the case of peat energy in 2010s Finland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 1-7.
    5. Chang, Chun Ping & Berdiev, Aziz N., 2011. "The political economy of energy regulation in OECD countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 816-825, September.
    6. Wen-Hsien Tsai & Hsiu-Li Lee & Chih-Hao Yang & Chung-Chen Huang, 2016. "Input-Output Analysis for Sustainability by Using DEA Method: A Comparison Study between European and Asian Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-17, November.
    7. Ilkka Ruostetsaari, 2010. "Citizens, Politicians and Experts in Energy Policy-Making: The Case of Finland," Energy & Environment, , vol. 21(3), pages 203-222, July.
    8. Jung, Nusrat & Moula, Munjur E. & Fang, Tingting & Hamdy, Mohamed & Lahdelma, Risto, 2016. "Social acceptance of renewable energy technologies for buildings in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area of Finland," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 813-824.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ilkka Ruostetsaari, 2010. "Citizens, Politicians and Experts in Energy Policy-Making: The Case of Finland," Energy & Environment, , vol. 21(3), pages 203-222, July.
    2. Ilkka Ruostetsaari, 2010. "Changing Regulation and Governance of Finnish Energy Policy Making: New Rules but Old Elites?," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 27(3), pages 273-297, May.
    3. Krott, Max & Bader, Axel & Schusser, Carsten & Devkota, Rosan & Maryudi, Ahmad & Giessen, Lukas & Aurenhammer, Helene, 2014. "Actor-centred power: The driving force in decentralised community based forest governance," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 34-42.
    4. Timilsina,Govinda R. & Toman,Michael A. & Karacsonyi,Jorge G. & de Tena Diego,Luca, 2015. "How much could South Asia benefit from regional electricity cooperation and trade ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7341, The World Bank.
    5. Kasper Ampe & Erik Paredis & Lotte Asveld & Patricia Osseweijer & Thomas Block, 2021. "Power struggles in policy feedback processes: incremental steps towards a circular economy within Dutch wastewater policy," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(3), pages 579-607, September.
    6. Arnouts, Rikke & van der Zouwen, Mariëlle & Arts, Bas, 2012. "Analysing governance modes and shifts — Governance arrangements in Dutch nature policy," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 43-50.
    7. Stringer, Thomas & Joanis, Marcelin, 2022. "Assessing energy transition costs: Sub-national challenges in Canada," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    8. Singh, Anoop & Jamasb, Tooraj & Nepal, Rabindra & Toman, Michael, 2018. "Electricity cooperation in South Asia: Barriers to cross-border trade," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 741-748.
    9. Emmanuelle Auriol & Sara Biancini, 2015. "Powering Up Developing Countries through Integration?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(1), pages 1-40.
    10. Pineau, Pierre-Olivier, 2008. "Electricity sector integration in West Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 210-223, January.
    11. Singh,Anoop & Jamasb,Tooraj & Nepal,Rabindra & Toman,Michael A., 2015. "Cross-border electricity cooperation in South Asia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7328, The World Bank.
    12. Marques, Marlene & Juerges, Nataly & Borges, José G., 2020. "Appraisal framework for actor interest and power analysis in forest management - Insights from Northern Portugal," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    13. Bergsma, Emmy & Gupta, Joyeeta & Jong, Pieter, 2012. "Does individual responsibility increase the adaptive capacity of society? The case of local water management in the Netherlands," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 13-22.
    14. Charles McClintock & Staci Lowe, 2007. "And the question is? Knowledge growth in welfare policy research," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 40(1), pages 35-54, March.
    15. Maryudi, Ahmad & Citraningtyas, Erlita R. & Purwanto, Ris H. & Sadono, Ronggo & Suryanto, Priyono & Riyanto, Slamet & Siswoko, Bowo D., 2016. "The emerging power of peasant farmers in the tenurial conflicts over the uses of state forestland in Central Java, Indonesia," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 70-75.
    16. Balaguer, Jacint, 2011. "Cross-border integration in the European electricity market. Evidence from the pricing behavior of Norwegian and Swiss exporters," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 4703-4712, September.
    17. Heeres, Niels & Tillema, Taede & Arts, Jos, 2012. "Integration in Dutch planning of motorways: From “line” towards “area-oriented” approaches," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 148-158.
    18. Aurenhammer, Peter K., 2017. "Forest land-use governance and change through Forest Owner Associations – Actors' roles and preferences in Bavaria," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(P1), pages 176-191.
    19. Li, Jia & Bluemling, Bettina & Mol, Arthur P. J. & Herzfeld, Thomas, 2014. "Stagnating Jatropha Biofuel Development in Southwest China: An Institutional Approach," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 6(6), pages 3192-3212.
    20. Kok, Kristiaan P.W. & Loeber, Anne M.C. & Grin, John, 2021. "Politics of complexity: Conceptualizing agency, power and powering in the transitional dynamics of complex adaptive systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(3).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:37:y:2009:i:1:p:102-110. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.