University of Helsinki

1. The Field in 1960

The Finnish Political Science Association celebrated its 25th anniversary in November, 1960. By that time political science had become a well-established academic discipline in Finland, being represented by five (or six) full professors in four university-level institutions, and competing with economics for the distinction of being the most widely studied social science. Nevertheless, a remarkable further growth was to be experienced during the 1960's and in the early 1970'5.

The first two chairs in political science had been established soon after Finland's national independence. One was established in 1918 at the new private university called Åbo Academy and the other in 1921 in the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Helsinki. These were later followed by the chairs at the School of Social Sciences and at the Swedish School of Business Administration in Helsinki. In 1960, three of the five full professors of the discipline were Swedish (Åbo Academy, the Swedish School of Business Administration and, since 1948, the Swedish chair at the University of Helsinki), and two professors taught in Finnish (University of Helsinki and the School of Social Sciences). The threeto-two language distribution of the five professors did not reflect the language situation of all instruction nor the situation among the students, for Finnish had become the main language in the academic life of the country.

The School of Social Sciences also had a professorship in local government, a field which would normally be included in the sphere of political science. This chair functioned independently of the major field. In addition to the four institutions having full professors, the Institute of Pedagogics at Jyvaskyla has had an associate professorship in the social sciences since 1959. This position has been held continuously by a political scientist whose responsibilities also covered basic examinations in economics. The particular purpose of the position was to broaden the training of budding history teachers at Jyvaskyla.

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* The author wishes to thank the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for a pleasant opportunity to write this review.

* The author wishes to thank the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study for a pleasant opportunity to write this review.

Departmental structure for the different fields at Finnish universities was still a very new idea. Only the University of Helsinki had in 1960 what could genuinely be called a political science department (it was, in fact, called the Institutum Politicum Universitatis Helsingiensis). This department had two full professors and also two associate professorships (in political science since 1948, and in public administration since 1959). Furthermore the department had more full-time junior teachers, who, in Finland, are called assistants although a more accurate translation would be instructors, or even assistant professors. In addition there were the docents who are well qualified Ph.D's employed on a part-time basis, and other part-time teachers as well.

In 1945, a significant step in the development of the social sciences had taken place, for it was at this time that a separate Faculty of Social Sciences was established at the University of Helsinki. A transfer was made from the Faculty of Philosophy of the two chairs in economics, and the chairs in public finance, political science, and moral philosophy. New chairs were then established in sociology, statistics, social policy, and political history (also the Swedish professorships in economics and in political science). The faculty followed the tradition of assuming collective responsibility for all academic matters (including the reading requirements for examinations and the grading of thesis); consequently, it has not been customary among Finnish graduates to distinguish between representatives of any given field within the social sciences in general.

There may also be a semantic reason for the lack of a clear identity for political scientists in Finland. The words for political science are either valtio-oppi (Finnish) and statslara (Swedish), or valtiotiede and statsvetenskap. These words are derived from the German terms Staatslehre and Staatswissenschaft. However, the social science fatuity in Helsinki was also given the name valtiotietellinen tiedekunta (in Swedish: statsvetenskapliga fakulteten; in German: staatswissenschaftliche Fakultat), and the name of the M.A. degree is valtiotieteen kandidaatti or maisteri (in Swedish: politices kandidat or magister). Consequently, the word valtiotieteilija' (statsvetare, Staatswissenschaftler) refers in common usage not only to a specialist in political science, but also to any graduate of the faculties of the social sciences at Helsinki and Åbo Academy. Recent attempts to adopt the term politologist for political scientists have not been very successful.

However, semantics and academic administration are not the only reasons for political scientists being described under the general heading of social scientists. The Faculty at Helsinki was concerned, especially in its earlier years, about its separate identity and was thus inclined to emphasize the common aspects of all social sciences. The curriculum has also included several basic courses (and the language proficiency requirements common to all students), and the requirements for a given degree include not only the major field but also a minor field, as well as two other fields. For example, during the 1957/58 academic year 151 M.A. degrees were awarded at Helsinki. They included 21 % in which political science was the major and economics the minor, and 9 % with political science as the major and sociology the minor, but there were also 23 % with economics as the major and political science as the minor, etc. (see Table V below). Furthermore, the

statistical information about the career patterns of the graduates, where it is
available, would be given for all social scientists (politices kandidat) and not for
the political scientists, nor for graduates with any other specialities.

Between 1946 and 1959, the University of Helsinki awarded 1,021 M.A. degrees in the social sciences; among these were 29 per cent with political science as the major (economics 26 %; public finance 3 %; sociology 19 %\ social policy 18 %; political history 2 %; moral philosophy 2 %\ statistics 1 Vo).¹ A great deal of the presentation below will use a different measure of output, namely, the accepted master's thesis rather than the fully completed degrees. In 1960, The Faculty accepted 60 M.A. theses (25 % of them in political science).² In the other Finnish institutions the numbers were still small. Åbo Academy totalled 74 M.A.'s (politices kandidater) between 1947 and 1959, with political science as their most frequent major field (but altogether, only 30 M.A.'s had graduated in 1923-47).³ The School of Social Sciences produced only 19 M.A.'s majoring in political science during the period from 1946 to 1959.⁴

2. The Growth

During the 1960's a notable expansion occurred in the university systems of most
Western nations. The following comparisons illustrate the over-all quantitative
development of Finland's universities from 1960 to 1970:

The expansion further continued in the 1970'5, although its pace began to slacken.5

Two structural changes were of particular importance to the social sciences. The hitherto small School of Social Sciences began to thrive in its new home city, and in 1966 it became the University of Tampere. In the same year its Faculty of Social Sciences was supplemented by a new Faculty of Economics and Administration. At the University of Turku the social sciences were separated from the humanities in 1967, and a new Faculty of Social Sciences was established. Both of these cases are examples of the general attempt to decentralize the growing university system.

Table I shows a summary of Finland's academic teaching positions in political science as they existed in 1976. The instructors and part-time teachers are not included in the Table; three positions which can be marginally claimed by political science are mentioned in parentheses. Now the country had seven political science departments in five universities, and there were associate professors in two other

universities, one of them also offering an M.A. program in political science. The list does not mention the Finnish School of Business Administration in Helsinki, which had a personal professor in political science from 1965 to 1969, but has later run its political science program with part-time teachers only.

A new department of political science was established at the University of Turku in 1961, with only one professor, although one semester later an assistant (instructor) was also employed, and eventually an associate professor and additional instructors and part-time teachers were brought in to strengthen the department. Since that time the university has made unsuccessful attempts to obtain a professor in international politics. On the other hand the political science department at Tampere did obtain a professor of international politics in 1966, with the University of Helsinki following suit in 1970. First recognition of the need for a specialist in public administration was made by the University of Helsinki, but it was the University of Tampere which went even further in 1966 and instituted a completely separate department of public administration. This new department

was placed, together with local government, in the new Faculty of Economics
and Administration.

As is illustrated in Table I, during the fifteen year period the number of professors of political science in Finland rose from five to ten, and the number of associate professors rose from three to nine. These figures include generalists in the social sciences (because in practice they have been political scientists) as well as specialists of narrowly defined fields. On the other hand, the figures do not include the two positions in social science methodology (a profesor at Tampere and an associate professor at Turku) which have also been held most of the time by political scientists. During these years two new teacher categories have appeared: the tenured lecturers who are required to have the licentiate but who do not need the Ph.D (they have a heavy teaching load); and the senior instructors who have a higher scientific qualification (they have a lighter teaching load but are appointed for only five years at a time). The number of instructors holding a full time position, but who are released for half the time for their own research, are not shown in Table I. There are seven of these at the University of Helsinki, two in Turku and Tampere, and one at Jyvaskyla and the Åbo Academy.

Full-time research positions are also not shown in Table I. However, the Social Science Research Council has had since 1963 three levels of full-time researchers (on three year appointments). These are the so-called senior and junior research fellows and research assistants (also an independent position, but for younger scholars). Several political scientists have worked in those capacities, having been placed in some university department to carry out their research, and most of them have participated to some extent in graduate teaching.

Apart f rom, universities, the very few research institutes which primarily employ political scientists include the Foreign Policy Institute and the Tampere Peace Research Institute. During the 1970's the Social Science Research Council and the Central Research Council (the so-called Academy of Finland) have financed separate research projects which have employed full-time researchers temporarily, and have also served a significant teaching function. In this connection it is also necessary to keep in mind that the administrative groupings of scholars do not define political science unambiguously. Thus there has been within constitutional and administrative law a trend towards more empirical analysis, and in political history there is evidence of a trend towards systematic analysis. There is also the natural overlap of political sociology and political science.

The Social Sciences and Theology were the last two Faculties of the University of Helsinki to allow open admission to all matriculated students. This led to a crisis: 705 new students entered the Faculty of Social Sciences in 1960/61, and the number of 'freshmen' was 974 in 1961/62. After such a flood the gates needed to be closed. The number of new degrees rose, in turn, from 61 in 1960/61 to 100 in 1963/64, to 236 in 1967/68, and to the peak of 362 in 1970/71 and 363 in 1971/72. Since then the number has declined to only 193 in 1974/75.⁶

Table II shows a summary of the approved M.A. theses at Helsinki by academic
year and by major field. During the 15 years from 1960/61 to 1974/75, the
Faculty of Social Sciences accepted 3,260 M.A. thesis. Among these, 963 (29 per

cent) were in political science. Throughout the 1960's the 'output' of the political science department exceeded its relative share of Faculty resources. Between 1961/62 and 1965/66 no less than 39—47 per cent of all the theses were written in political science, and the share remained at about one-third from 1966/67 to 1969/70. In 1970, political science lost the 'popularity contest' to the field of economics, and in 1974/75 the percentage of M.A. theses in political science (17 per cent) was finally down to the Department's relative share of all the teaching positions within the Faculty (but then there were only 24 theses, or 14 per cent, in 1975/76).

Table 111 contains comparable information for the University of Tampere; the Table omits several disciplines of both the Faculty of Social Sciences (e.g., psychology) and the Faculty of Economics and Administration (e.g., law, mathematics, business administration). As was indicated above, political science broadly defined has been represented first by two and then by three different departments at Tampere, and there has been no close contact between these two departments. The annual number of new political scientists reached a peak at Tampere two years later than at Helsinki, in 1970/71, when the three sub-disciplines together produced 86 M.A. theses. Another two years later their combined 'output' became larger than that of Helsiniki. The newest of the three sub-fields at Tampere has not shared the recent tendency of the other two towards smaller numbers, and in 1974/75, it alone had more theses in the university than had economics. However, it seems that political science has not been - either numerically or semantically - relatively as significant at the University of Tampere as it used to be in the

Faculty of Social Sciences at Helsinki. The tradition of the University of Tampere
has directly emphasized job-oriented studies, those which are represented for instance,
by social policy and journalism in Table 111.

Table IV indicates the numbers of all the master's theses in political science (and public administration) which Finnish universities accepted during the fifteen years from 1960 to 1975. A total of 1,859 M.A. theses were then cumulated as the annual average rose from 56 during the first five-year period to 174 during the last period (a growth of 208 per cent). The relative share of the University of Helsinki declined from 70 to 37 per cent. By omitting the two 'unorthodox' departments at Tampere, the 15-year total is reduced to 1,498, and Helsinki's relative share during the three periods rises to 83, 75 and 48 per cent respectively. Among the newest M.A. programs, the University of Turku experienced its peak year in 1972 with 30 master's theses, and Jyvåskyla (co-operating with Tampere) accepted nine theses in 1972 and in 1973.

During the period 1960 to 1970, academic degrees in the social sciences increased in Finland much faster than the expansion of the university system as a whole. While the annual number of all degrees doubled (the growth of the university system was 103 per cent; see p. 3), the M.A. thesis accepted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Helsinki increased five-fold from 1960/61 to 1970/71 (the growth during that time was 393 per cent, see Table II). During the same time, other universities developed their social sciences at an even greater pace, either

from small beginnings or, in some cases, from non-existence. There was also a fast rate of growth in the field of political science, although it was not quite as rapid as in certain other social sciences. Furthermore, the increasing numbers of M.A.'s majoring in political science were stabilized and then began to decline sooner than did the numbers of all social scientists. Two basic reasons halted the rapid expansion of the social sciences by the mid-1970'5. Inside academe the means of teaching had not increased as fast as the need for teaching, while the outside society relayed signs of possible academic unemployment.

3. The Curriculum

It is possible to advance the study of political science in Finnish universities in seven consecutive steps. Four of these steps fulfil the requirements for the major field in the M.A. degree: there are the three levels of examinations, first the approbatur, secondly, the cum laude approbatur, and thirdly, the laudatur. In fourth place comes the master's thesis. Originally the thesis had to be completed before the final examination of the laudatur literature, but the thesis has now become more an entity in its own right, and, rather typically, it is now the last requirement to be completed before graduation. The remaining three postgraduate steps of research and training are the licentiate examination, the licentiate thesis and, finally, the published book which is presented as the doctoral thesis.

Each of the there examinations of the basic M.A. degree actually consists of several courses, and not only of the three examinations which are based on the selfstudy of reading requirements. The students progress in their studies without any strictly structured study programs, and it is not possible to quote any standard time for passing all the requirements. According to one recent estimate, the four cumulative stages of the laudatur requirements represent an average total of about 90 weeks of full-time work.⁷ It is possible to obtain the M.A. degree in five years.

However, the typical graduate with an M.A. (Pol.Kand.) degree will have invested about six years in his or her studies.⁸ The major field is an essential part of this, although the overall requirements include much more. There must also be a minor subject which may be brought to the laudatur level (including a second M.A. thesis which, however, would not be included in Tables 11, 111, VI and VII); in such cases an approbatur in a third field will suffice to complete the structure of the degree. Another possibility would be two cum laude approbatur examinations. However, the most typical degree and also the only possible one at Helsinki until 1968, supplements the major field's laudatur with one cum laude approbatur and with two additional approbatur examinations. All students then also need to pass the basic and supplementary courses required by the Faculty. The process of an evaluation and a reform of Finland's degree requirements, which is currently under way, naturally does not affect the period covered by this review.

During the early part of the 1960'5, a major in political science at the University of Helsinki had to be supported by both economics and sociology. It was necessary for one of these to be the degree's minor {cum laude approbatur) field. Since that time there has been more flexibility. Students have also shown more diversity in their choice of both major and minor fields; indeed, in the minor field it is not necessary for the subject to be taught by the social science faculty (international law, geography, psychology, and computer science are examples of possible choices for political scientists from other faculties). The resulting diversity can be seen in Table V, which lists the most frequent combinations of major and minor fields for four sample years. In 1957/58, the nine most frequent combinations accounted for 80 per cent of all the M.A. degrees at Helsinki, but in 1969/70 they covered 69 per cent, and in 1974 only 54 per cent of all the degrees.

Table V also illustrates how political science and economics have complemented each other in general during most of the fifteen year period. Recently, however, political scientists have more frequently chosen sociology as their minor subject, with mass communication emerging as their third most popular field. Economists, on the other hand, have begun to complement their studies particularly with social policy and statistics.

The internal curriculum of political science, as in many other disciplines, used to be rigid and without many options and changed little from year to year. Variety was added to the studies by the individual writing assignments (essays and seminar papers) and in particular through the choice of topic of the individual's thesis.

However, when a professorship in international politics was established at Tampere, the political science curriculum was divided so that students were offered a clear choice of speciality, emphasizing either general political studies, or international politics (although a large part of the curricular requirements included both of these areas). It was not long before Helsinki offered three different areas for political scientists. Approbatur, and the first halves of the cum laude approbatur and the laudatur, were common to all three areas, whereas the remaining study

allowed for specialization in either general studies, international politics or public administration. In addition the these broad choices, it gradually became customary, during the 1960'5, to allow students a wide individual choice of required readings; to some extent this range has again been simplified during very recent years.

The best single indicator of the young political scientist's orientation within his discipline is the set of topics chosen for the master's thesis. Table VI gives a summary of the topics dealt with by those theses accepted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at Helsinki during each five year period from the Fall of 1960 to the Spring of 1975. The biggest overall swing in interest has led first from the politics of foreign nations to international relations and, secondly, towards an increasing emphasis on public administration. During one average year between 1965/66 and 1969/70 there were 38 master's theses which dealt either with international politics or international organizations. The emphasis in this area justified the new specialized professorship. International relations and public administration have accounted for about three-fifths of all theses during the past ten years, and there has thus been little room left for any emphasis on the internal politics of Finland. One-fifth of all the theses have dealt with those areas which the bibliography classifies as the 'governmental processes'. Students have done surprisingly little research work on the executive and the legislature, whereas there seems to have been a revival of interest in theoretical and methodological studies during the 1970'5.

Table VII again presents comparable information for the University of Tampere (now excluding local government and public administration). When the theses became numerous in the late 1960's international relations grew to about the same relative proportions at Tampere as it occupied at Helsinki. Public administration is the responsibility of a separate department in Tampere, whereas 'governmental processes' have regularly covered almost two-fifths of all the theses there. The two universities share a similar trend of movement away from foreign topics.

The decline of foreign topics (at Helsinki from 34 to 8 per cent), as can be seen in Tables VI and VII, may be a slight exaggeration of the actual trend because several comparative studies have been coded under other headings. Furthermore, the low numbers should not be interpreted as a sign of a poor general knowledge among students of the politics of foreign nations. Rather, the reading requirements for the three examinations would indicate that the graduate with a Finnish M.A. in political science gains a fair knowledge of the politics of foreign nations as well as of political theory and research methods. On the other hand, there seems to be little requirement for reading the literature on Finland's own internal politics. A simplified conclusion might be that the typical recent M.A. recipient in political science has written a thesis either about international relations or Finland's public administration, and during the course of preparing the thesis use will have been made of some theoretical knowledge and basic information on the politics of several foreign nations. On the other hand, most M.A.'s have shied away from the research problems which would deal with the internal political life of Finland. Relatively speaking this is more true of Helsinki than of Tampere. Although statistical techniques are taught to all students, most of them utilize qualitative analysis when writing their theses.⁹

The recent trend towards more interest in public administration can also be observed at the University of Turku which accepted its first M.A. in political science in 1965. The following is a brief summary of the theses topics at Turku for the eleven calendar years from 1965 to 1975:¹⁰

Thus, there were 158 M.A. theses: by the end of 1975, 144 students actually graduated with political science as their major field. Another comparison of Turku with the other two universities suggests that the department at Turku has shown relatively greater interest in political theory.

All Finnish M.A.'s are free to continue their work toward the higher academic degrees, the licentiate and the doctorate. A fair number do at least participate in the licentiate seminars, although only a few can be financed to do full-time postgraduate work. It is not at all uncommon in Finland for the writing of licentiate theses and doctoral dissertations to be financially supported by full-time nonacademic employment. The highest degrees have also proved to be an important asset for the advance of many non-academic careers. In 1970, Finland's economically active population included a total of 3,860 social science graduates. Of those, 130 (3.3 per cent) had the Ph.D. degree, 218 (5.6 per cent) were licentiates, and 3,412 (91.1 per cent) had the M.A. degree.¹¹

4. The Graduates

The Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Helsinki had 'founding fathers' during both World Wars who publicly justified their initiative to establish the Faculty, and their arguments underlined the need for social scientists in state and municipal government.¹² Moreover, the post-war experience in Sweden pointed towards a predominant career pattern in state bureaucracy. However, in 1959, there were still only 28 per cent of Finnish Politices Kandidater employed by the state or the muncipalities (in Sweden the figure was 61 per cent in 1955).

In Finland, too, there had been a trend towards an increasing share in public employment (in 1951, only 13 per cent). This trend continued strongly during the 1960'5. According to the little information available, public employment of social scientists (Politices Kandidat) reached 40 per cent in 1967. A recent study found that of those M.A.'s in the social sciences who graduated from the five universities during 1971/72 and 1972/73, only one quarter were working in the private sector in 1974. The state employed 28 per cent; the municipalities accounted for 22 per cent, and the joint organizations of local government units for 8 per cent. The universities and the research councils employed 12 per cent; and state-owned corporations three per cent.¹³ The general profile of the social scientist in public service had changed considerably. The 'founding fathers' had been concerned about the need for social scientists in the administrative tasks of the civil service. A feature of the 1970's which was not anticipated has been the growing demand imposed by public planning.

Table VIII summarizes those 24 occupational categories within the Finnish labor force which, according to the Census of 1970, included at least 20 persons with the Politices Kandidat among their ranks. The Table also shows a general comparison with the Census of 1960. The two biggest occupational groupings of the social scientists were the 'higher public office' and 'social research and planning'. —Both of these had grown since 1960, and combined they covered 31 per cent of

all the jobs in 1970. The other categories which had increased during the decade
included 'university teachers' and 'personnel and public relations' on the one

1970; the share of the Politices Kandidater in business management had been
slipping in the 1960'5. There had also been a decline in the number of jobs in
social work and in library work.

Those social scientists whose major field is political science cannot be extracted from Table VIII. In earlier years such attempts might even have been considered groundless because of the curriculum, and because the graduates with the new degree generally struggled for their place in the sun as the representatives of the social scientific approach rather than as the specialists of any given discipline.

Their competitors in the academic labor market and especially in public office
were the jurists who had been rooted firmly in the system.

One might name, impressionalistically at least, the mass media and various civic organizations as typical private employers of the political scientist, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is considered to be the typical government employer. Some data were gathered in 1967 showing that the field of communications and organizations then employed only 18 per cent of the M.A.'s who had majored in political science at Helsinki (n = 405), while the banks, commerce and insurance employed 36 per cent, and 21 per cent were to be found in public administration. There were 31 political scientists (8 per cent) actually working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - the same number were working in foreign trade. No clear occupational profile was found at that time for political scientists, but, perhaps due to the large numbers, political scientists tended to receive lower salaries than other social scientists.¹⁴

Political scientists are even employed in politics. Nowadays, several leaders and functionaries of the political parties have been trained in political science. Over ten per cent of the members of the Finnish parliament, as well as several Ministers of the Cabinet in recent years, have been university graduates holding an M.A. degree in the social sciences.₁₅ Nevertheless, the majority of Finland's legislators have no academic training.

There has been some exaggeration in Finland regarding the number of unemployed social scientists. Actual unemployment has been rare. It is true, however, that many social scientists have found it difficult to obtain satisfactory positions which would correspond to their training. According to one study, 57 per cent of the graduates of the previous year had in 1973 a job requiring an academic degree, and another 28 per cent found their degrees to be somehow useful. But, there was a 21 per cent minority who considered their degrees to be irrelevant for their jobs.¹⁶

5. The Organizations

Two types or organizations speak for the political scientists of Finland. The Finnish Political Science Association is the scholarly spokesman, and the alumni associations formed by social science graduates have been active in the labor market.

The Political Science Association began its regular publication program in 1941 and in 1958 its yearbook was converted to the quarterly journal Politiikka. A book series was started in co-operation with private publishers in 1958; the series published its 15th volume in 1975. Only four publications of the association have been specifically directed at an international audience (Democracy in Finland by nine authors in 1960; Finnish Foreign Policy by 14 authors in 1963; Essays on Finnish Foreign Policy by nine authors in 1969; and a special issue of the Politiikka on Soviet studies in 1972). A quarterly newsletter called Politiikan tutkimus ja yhteiskunta (Political Research and the Society) was started in 1975.

The Finnish Political Science Association has experienced a gradual and almost unnoticeable basic transformation from a society of the friends of political research to a society of professional performers of political research. Over the years its membership figures have generally remained fairly constant, at about 400-440 (there were 478 members on the books in 1976). However, the recruitment base has changed. The higher civil servants, the specialists in constitutional law, members of parliament, functionaries of political parties and labor market associations, and other comparable groups have ceased to be among the prime targets, at least in these capacities. The groups which have remained are the same people who typically circle around the political science licentiate seminars at the different universities. Such circles have become extended numerically and dispersed geographically.

In the early 1960'5, the monthly speakers ranged from young scholars to the President of the Republic, and all had an audience. In the late 1960'5, the regular monthly sessions withered away and in the 1970's even most Board Members are absent from the annual meeting when its scholarly paper is being read. Intense two-day conferences - arranged in January - have replaced the monthly gatherings of the membership. These conferences, the ninth of which was arranged in January, 1977, have a varied program of papers and discussions. Their participants have included undergraduate students of political science as well as both young and mature scholars.

The Finnish Political Science Association and its individual members have been quite active in developing international co-operation among political scientists. The Finnish Association became a member of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) in 1952. It has hosted some IPS A seminars; it was also the organizer of the Scandinavian political science conference of 1968; it took an active part in the establishment of Scandinavian Political Studies in the mid-1960'5; and it has paid considerable attention to workshops of the European Consortium for Political Research, although the formal members of the ECPR are the university departments directly.

The most important single activity of the Association, however, is that of publishing the Politiikka, which is directed entirely towards the native audience (the articles, published in Finnish or Swedish, are only briefly summarized in English). The journal is expensive to print and, like most other scientific societies in Finland, the Political Science Association has become very dependent on the annual and the ad hoc support it receives from the state (the Ministry of Education and the Social Science Research Council). That financial support and, naturally, voluntary activity have helped the Political Science Association to play a significant role in the development of political science in Finland. On the other hand, contrary to expectations four decades earlier, the Association itself has not emerged as a scholarly consultant of the government.¹⁷

The organized labor market does not recognize political scientists as a professional entity. Political scientists are unionized on the basis of their particular type of work or, at most, they are seen as one element within the broader category of social scientists. The graduates of the social science faculties at Helsinki and Åbo

Academy established their association in 1950. It has been active at times - for example, a biographical reference book of all the M.A.'s was published in 1966¹⁸ - and it became almost invisible at other times. It was replaced in 1973 by Suomen Valtiotieteilijoiden Liito/Statsvetarnas i Finland Forbund (Finnish Union of Social Scientists). The graduates of the University of Tampere also have a 'senior organization' of long standing, active enough to publish its biographical reference book.¹⁹ In 1967, such associations launched an experiment with their joint National Union of Social Scientists. However, it seems that the various labor market oriented associations of social science graduates per se represent a base which by now has interests too heterogeneous to be organized effectively.

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NOTES

1. Helsingin yliopisto, Valtiotieteellinen tiedekunta, Tutkinnonuudistustoimikunnan mietinto 25.3.1975 (University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Report of the Committee on Curriculum Reform, 25 March, 1975), p. 15.

2. Data compiled from the archives of the Department of Political Science, University of Helsinki.

3. Ralf Sundman (ed.), Statsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid Åbo Akademi. Forskning - lår are - studentliv (Tammerfors, 1976), pp. 154-155.

4. Information received from the Department of Political Science, University of Tampere.

5. See Higher Education and Research in Finland (Reference Publications 6, Ministry of Education, Helsinki 1973), esp. pp. 15-25; and Pertti Pesonen, "The 'One Man - One Vote' Issue in Finland", to be published in Hans Daalder (ed.), Legislatures and the Universities (forthcoming).

6. The Report of 1975, p. 14; and Tilasto- ym. tietoa Helsingin yliopistosta vv. 1970-75, p. 2.

7. The Report of 1975, Appendix 4.

8. The M.A.'s who graduated at Helsinki in 1974 had studied an average of 12.9 semesters (mean) or 12.2 semesters (median); The Report of 1975, p. 18. It is obvious that many students had been slowed down by gainful employment during some periods of their study.

9. See Erkki Berndtson and Ilmari Susiluoto, 'Nåkokohtia valtio-opin laudaturtoistå' (Aspects of the M.A. Theses in Political Science), Politiikka, 1969, pp. 113-119.

10. Basedon data provided by Voitto Helander.

11. Suomen virallinen tilasto (Official Statistics of Finland), VI C-104, Vaestolaskenta, Osa VII A (Population Census, Volume VII A), Helsinki, 1974, Table 6.

12. See quotations from J. H. Vennola (1916) and the Commission on the Training of Civil Servants (1942) in The Report of 1975, pp. 1-3.

13. Unfinished study by Leif Ronnberg; and Pirjo Yrjé-Koskinen, 'Valtiotieteen kandidaatit' (M.A. Thesis in Sociology, University of Helsinki, 1967); quoted in The Report of 1975, p. 22 and Appendix 3.

14. Tapio Rajavuori, 'Valtio-opin opiskelijoiden tyomarkkinatilanne' (The Labour Market Situation of Students in Political Science), Politiikka 1969: 109-113.

15. Among the 200 Members of Parliament who where elected in 1975, 27 have an M.A. or higher degree in the social sciences (19 from Helsinki, six from Tampere, and one each from Turku and the Swedish School of Business Administration); three students from the Helsinki Faculty were also elected to the Parliament.

16. Study by Paivi Elovainio, quoted in The Report of 1975, p. 21. In October 1976, 270 M.A.'s in the social sciences were looking for employment through public employment offices and 159 of them were actually unemployed (Tyovoimaministerion tilastoja, marraskuu 1976; Statistics of the Ministry of Labour, November, 1976).

17. However, both the Association and some of its individual members were among those institutional and individual experts who were officially asked to state their opinion regarding the report of the Government Commission on Constitutional Reform in 1974.

18. Valtiotieteen kandidaatit - Politices kandidat er nå 1966 (Pieksamåki, 1966), 311 pp.

19. Kyllikki Kailari, ed. Yhteiskuntatieteiden kandidaatit 1932-64 (Mikkeli, 1965), 150 pp.