Passive, Indifferent, Engaged? The Faces of Local Civic Activity in Finland

Abstract

Among European states Nordic countries, including Finland, are often set as examples of countries with high social capital, in which citizens willingly engage into decision-making process. The aim of the article is to verify this assumption and to present diverse attitudes of citizens towards local engagement. The article is based on quantitative data (statistics on civic involvement) as well as qualitative research (interviews with councillors from selected Finnish municipalities). The conclusion points at transformation of Finnish democracy and the fact that paradoxically developed institutions of representative democracy may have a negative influence on the wiliness to apply further, non-electoral mechanisms of civic involvement.