Government vs opposition voting in the Finnish parliament Eduskunta since World War II

: Pajala Antti

: 2013

: European Journal of Government and Economics

: EJGE

: 1

: 2

: 1

: 41

: 58

: 18

: 2254-7088

: http://www.ejge.org/index.php/ejge/article/view/32(external)

In a parliamentary system it is by definition justified to assume the government
parties voting almost always in a unitary manner in plenary votes. In a multiparty
system it is, however, hard to predict how the opposition groups vote. Few studies
analysing government-opposition voting in the Finnish parliament Eduskunta were
published during the 1960s and 1970s. This study provides similar analyses
regarding the parliamentary years of 1991-2012. Combined the studies provide an
insight into the government-opposition relations since World War II. The results
show that before the 1990s the government-opposition division in plenary votes
appeared rather clear and the political party groups’ positions followed the
traditional left-right dimension. Since the 1990s, the government-opposition division
has become greater. The governing coalition acts almost as a bloc while the
opposition groups are divided into moderate and hard opposition. The opposition
groups, however, appear in a more or less random order. Consequently, since the
1990s the left-right dimension has disappeared with respect to plenary voting.