Crisis, temporality and governmental policy agendas: The cases of Finland and Sweden

Abstract

<p>Crises transform the temporal orientation of political decision‐making. They demand<br>immediate and decisive action and thus convert time into a means of political control. In<br>these circumstances, assessing the long‐term consequences of proposed policies with<br>respect to welfare, sustainability or justice also becomes demanding. Yet crisis conditions<br>may also contain of elements that can enable positive postcrisis societal changes. Crises<br>can offer opportunities for new developmental measures and building a better future—<br>something political leaders may capitalise on in their agenda‐setting. By analysing the<br>programmes of the post‐2014 Finnish and Swedish governments, this paper seeks to<br>make sense of how the current crisis mode has shaped these countries' politics in terms of<br>their temporal horizons. The analysis focuses on three main perspectives or forms<br>of articulation—innovative stabilisation, long‐termism and synchronisation—by way of<br>which these governments seek to navigate through crises‐afflicted times and offer a<br>desirable future direction for their respective societies. The analysis offers important<br>insights into the (unused) potential of crises to achieve something substantially novel in<br>the Nordic and European political landscape, ultimately advancing the conditions for a<br>future‐regarding democratic system.<br></p>