An article written by the Finnish President, Tarja Halonen, a well respected figure on the European science. As a citizen, democracy has begun to be my worries, not only after the US specific measures against the terrorism, bu also after seeing what happens in Italy and in France in the last years. We have to learn from the North.


As we all here well know the Greek word demokratikos means simply power of the people. To find out what the power of the people actually means has preoccupied statesmen and philosophers for centuries. From my point of view I’ll try to make a practical approach to the matter on the basis of the United Nations Charter and some particular agreements, because these might in this multi-cultural seminar of ours be the common ground we all share.
Finland is a member state of the United Nations, and as such it has approved the international agreements on the rights of the citizens and political rights as well as basic economic, social and cultural rights. Finland also belongs to the Council of Europe and has accordingly approved the European Charter of Human Rights. We have therefore agreed that the international community has the right to be informed of the stage and direction of development of the Finnish democracy. Also the citizens of our country have the possibility to appeal to international courts of justice against their own government. I feel that this is one of the true characteristics of modern democracy. The political rights of the citizens are not only an internal affair of a state.

Finland as well as other Nordic countries has a fairly good record in the international community as a democratic state. Usually we have not been found guilty of human rights violations. The civil activity has, however, brought Finland in quite a few cases as the accused part to the international courts. Within the framework of European Council all the Northern countries are fairly well represented on the cause list. Nordic countries are also active critics of others within the international community. Are we in a position to do that?


The Power in the Nordic Countries Belongs to the People

On the basis of our constitution the power in Finland belongs to the people. The people are represented by a parliament elected in free elections. In all the Nordic countries and so also in our case, parliament and the cabinet responsible to parliament have a very central position.

How well does parliament represent the will of the people? Does it really represent the people? All Finnish citizens have the right to vote and they are eligible in parliamentary elections, if by the beginning of the electoral year they are 18 years of age or over. Foreigners do not have these rights in parliamentary elections. It must also be remarked that parliament does not exactly correspond to the socio-economic distribution of the people now living in Finland.

Let us at first make a comparison of male and female representation. In meeting the demands of the United Nations the sexual equality, the Nordic countries have succeeded better than others. But we still have a lot to do. In our March 1991 election for parliament, 77 women and 123 men were elected. With this result Finland is at the moment the top in the international statistics of equality between men and women. In other Nordic countries the situation is pretty much the same.

The full article on the website of the European Association for Education of Adults

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