The Debt Clock is Ticking: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Depoliticization in Finnish Politics
Mäki, Markus (2019)
2019
Master's Degree Programme in Leadership for Change
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2019-12-09
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201911055753
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201911055753
Tiivistelmä
This study examines how depoliticization practices are produced in the context of Finnish parliamentary elections. Depoliticization refers to governmental, societal and discursive practices that attempt to restrain the agency of democratically elected politicians and transfer political power to other actors in society. Depoliticization can be understood either as a strategy for state governance or as an ongoing process that includes various social and power relations such as gender, race, and age.
The theoretical framework of this study includes a conceptual definition of depoliticization, and it examines the phenomenon from the perspective of ideologies and hegemonies. The research consists of a qualitative content analysis on an electoral debate that was organized by a Finnish broadcasting company MTV in May 2015. The analysis is supplemented with elements from discourse theory to provide a more comprehensive picture of discursive depoliticization practices.
According to the analysis, depoliticization is mainly produced in Finland by the European Union fiscal policy regulations and the neoliberal ideology that encourages governments to advance fiscal austerity measures in balancing the public economy. Furthermore, Finnish mainstream media tends to reproduce depoliticization discourse in their presentations because it has widely adopted the capitalist economic system.
It has been suggested that depoliticization could be one reason for the current political disengagement in modern liberal democracies because it decreases the political power of democratically elected governments by limiting the scope of available policy actions. Consequently, formal politics is no longer the main arena for political antagonism and ideological disputes that are an intrinsic part of social life.
This research aims to provide new information about the phenomenon by revealing how depoliticization practices are used in everyday politics. In addition, it suggests that liberal democracies should avoid having too much depoliticization in their political systems because otherwise political antagonism could eventually take radical forms that might not be democratic or liberal.
The theoretical framework of this study includes a conceptual definition of depoliticization, and it examines the phenomenon from the perspective of ideologies and hegemonies. The research consists of a qualitative content analysis on an electoral debate that was organized by a Finnish broadcasting company MTV in May 2015. The analysis is supplemented with elements from discourse theory to provide a more comprehensive picture of discursive depoliticization practices.
According to the analysis, depoliticization is mainly produced in Finland by the European Union fiscal policy regulations and the neoliberal ideology that encourages governments to advance fiscal austerity measures in balancing the public economy. Furthermore, Finnish mainstream media tends to reproduce depoliticization discourse in their presentations because it has widely adopted the capitalist economic system.
It has been suggested that depoliticization could be one reason for the current political disengagement in modern liberal democracies because it decreases the political power of democratically elected governments by limiting the scope of available policy actions. Consequently, formal politics is no longer the main arena for political antagonism and ideological disputes that are an intrinsic part of social life.
This research aims to provide new information about the phenomenon by revealing how depoliticization practices are used in everyday politics. In addition, it suggests that liberal democracies should avoid having too much depoliticization in their political systems because otherwise political antagonism could eventually take radical forms that might not be democratic or liberal.