Where is Finland on the Deliberative Wave?
Time
29.10.2021 at 13.00 - 14.15
Place
During the past decade, and the past few years in particular, there has been a growing interest in deliberative mini-publics, largely because of their capacity for dealing with complex and polarising issues like climate change. Mini-publics, which can manifest as processes such as Citizens’ Panels and Assemblies, convene randomly selected groups of people representing a wide cross-section of society to learn, deliberate, and develop collective recommendations for solving multifaceted public issues.
Although the so-called deliberative wave has been growing around the world, deliberative processes have been used cautiously in Finnish policy-making. Two government-sponsored Citizens’ Panels were organized in 2021, one on freedom of speech in the context of the OECD Civic Space Scan of Finland, and one on national climate policies. However, there are many questions regarding the potential roles of deliberative processes in Finnish politics, such as how they contribute to decision-making and their impact on public discourse.
During this event, Claudia Chwalisz, who leads the OECD’s work on innovative citizen participation, will present the findings of the OECD research on the deliberative wave, as well as a new OECD paper on how public deliberation is being institutionalised to become a permanent part of the democratic system. She will be joined by Maija Setälä (University of Turku), who will discuss the role of mini-publics from the Finnish perspective and cover some examples of recent deliberative processes in Finland. These presentations will be followed by comments from Katju Holkeri (Ministry of Finance) and Hannu-Pekka Ikäheimo (Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra). The event will be chaired by Kaisa Herne (University of Tampere).
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The event is free of charge and open to everyone interested in the topic, but requires prior registration.
Although the so-called deliberative wave has been growing around the world, deliberative processes have been used cautiously in Finnish policy-making. Two government-sponsored Citizens’ Panels were organized in 2021, one on freedom of speech in the context of the OECD Civic Space Scan of Finland, and one on national climate policies. However, there are many questions regarding the potential roles of deliberative processes in Finnish politics, such as how they contribute to decision-making and their impact on public discourse.
During this event, Claudia Chwalisz, who leads the OECD’s work on innovative citizen participation, will present the findings of the OECD research on the deliberative wave, as well as a new OECD paper on how public deliberation is being institutionalised to become a permanent part of the democratic system. She will be joined by Maija Setälä (University of Turku), who will discuss the role of mini-publics from the Finnish perspective and cover some examples of recent deliberative processes in Finland. These presentations will be followed by comments from Katju Holkeri (Ministry of Finance) and Hannu-Pekka Ikäheimo (Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra). The event will be chaired by Kaisa Herne (University of Tampere).
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The event is free of charge and open to everyone interested in the topic, but requires prior registration.