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From Protest to Pragmatism: Stabilisation of the Green League into Finnish Political Culture and Party System during the 1990s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2022

Jenni Karimäki Open the ORCID record for Jenni Karimäki [Opens in a new window]
Jenni Karimäki*
Affiliation:
Philosophy, Contemporary History and Political Science, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
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[email protected]
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Abstract

Though not the forefathers of the Green party family, the Finnish Greens are an avantgarde when it comes to adapting to existing political culture and making their way from political margins to mainstream. The examination of the intra-party reasons and reasonings regarding adaptation and conformation reveals that it is never a question of either/or but a testament of conflicting interests. Although the compromise and consensus-seeking Finnish political culture and party system created external pressures on the Green League, forcing the party to conform with the existing procedures and traditions, the growing intra-party willingness to adapt was expressed in streamlining of the organisation and ideology as well as in the increasing office-seeking tendencies and accentuation of stability and credibility as preconditions of incumbency. Instead of pursuing radical changes to the existing political system, transforming growing adherence into incumbency required adaptation and conformation

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Article
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Contemporary European History , Volume 31 , Issue 3 , August 2022 , pp. 456 - 468
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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