Changing Dynamics of Science and Technology

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Changing Dynamics of Science and Technology
Finland in a Global Perspective Corporatists
Efforts to pursue New Energy Policy
19.11.2007 Marja Häyrinen-Alestalo University
of Helsinki Helsinki Institute of Science and
Technology Studies (HIST) email
marja.alestalo_at_helsinki.fi
Helsinki Institute of Science and Technology
Studies (HIST)
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• 1. HOW TO STUDY NEW ENERGY POLICY THROUGH
  CORPORATISM?
• This lecture is based on a starting study titled
  Processes of Multi-Scale Energy Policy by a
  HIST research group.
• In the study my contribution is to study
  corporatism that is facing new orientations in
  energy policy. Aside from corporatism Tuula
  Teräväinen is studying parliamentarism as another
  form of representative democracy.
• An attempt is made to analyze the efforts to
  balance national objectives of economic,
  environmental and social sustainability in the
  frame of a high technology-led energy policy and
  the knowledge-based economy.
• In the study the corporatist system is seen as a
  mediator of international energy policy
  regulation and as a body confronting new national
  interests.
• Our aim is to analyze the ways consensus can be
  maintained in the case of new energy policy and
  the power structures are changing between the
  state and the corporatist actors.

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• 2. WHAT IS MEANT BY CORPORATISM?
• It has been typical to the Nordic welfare states
  to promote state activism and to view the state
  as a corporate actor.
• Aside from the undermining of the welfare state,
  also the concept of corporatism has outlived its
  utility.
• It has been thought that the neo-liberal ideology
  with freer markets and welfare state
  retrenchment, the practice of corporatist
  policy-making is bound to disappear.
• A definition of corporatism from the 1965
  (Shonfield) In order to attain a high-level of
  macro-economic performance, modern economies have
  promoted processes, including state planning, in
  which the major interest groups are brought
  together and encouraged to conclude a series of
  bargains about their future behaviour.
• In the 1970s the concept of a new- or
  neo-corporatism was introduced.
• In the early 1990s it was discussed of the fate
  of neo-corporatism. Then the neo-corporatist
  analysis was mainly concerned with tripartite
  relations between the state, business and labour
  markets.

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• In this lecture I will concentrate mainly on the
  changes in this tripartite system even though
  many demands for its change come from the new
  theory governance and also that of democracy.
• Today one can notice a return of corporatism
  where the emphasis is, however, on shifting
  involvements and on the new bargains being
  expected to be more flexible and more ambitious.
• In this case it is necessary to discover new
  politics of corporatism.
• Also a new concept of integration is needed
  together with the acceptance by the public
  authorities of an active role of new social
  partners in the policy-making process.

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• 3. RESTUCTURING STATE POWER
• Together with other Nordic countries the
  tripartite negotiation system in Finland has
  aimed at building corporatism and consensus.
• In Finland and Sweden the political systems have
  followed an exclusive corporatist strategy with
  an emphasis on political consensus but also a
  strong state.
• In the case of neo-liberal orientation of the
  state from the 1990s onwards, markets have
  penetrated into the controlling activities of the
  state and have started also to evaluate the value
  of political decision-making.
• This being the case an effort is still made to
  reach consensus but the space for the state
  activities has been reduced.
• At the same time a common action has become more
  individualised and it does not require the former
  agreements with the interest organisations.
• In the Nordic representative democracy labour
  market has acted between the state and the
  enterprises.

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• This peculiarity has strengthened the formal role
  of labour market making it close to the state
  aspirations.
• There has also been a tendency towards a
  compromise seeking corporate action.
• Accordingly the labour unions tend to take their
  power from the state and their relationships to
  other citizen movements are only developing.
• In the view of Jessop (2002) there has been a
  selective transfer of the state capacities
  upwards, downwards and sideways.
• This trend indicates also a need to change the
  Nordic model of a representative democracy and to
  bring in issues of new modes of participatory
  representation.
• These kinds of demands have become already
  evident in the relation to environmental issues.
• In the case of energy and climate change similar
  changes in democratic representation are needed.

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• Nevertheless, a recent opinion survey of
  Helsingin Sanomat indicates that Finnish people
  have not lost their trust in labour market
  activities and that this trust has even increased
  in the three last years. People are mostly also
  convinced that the activities of the labour
  market go to a right direction.

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• 4. THE NEEDS OF REORIENTATION IN ENERGY POLICY
• The balance between the demand and supply of
  energy has been one of the challenges of
  industrialisation.
• Even though there have been several geopolitical
  conflicts in energy supply, such as
• the effects of wars
• the energy crisis of the 1970s
• the estimations of the end of Western growth
  policy due to the exhaustion of fossil energy
  sources,
• the growing needs of energy are at the core of
  current economic and industrial policies.
• Moreover, the demand for increasing energy supply
  is linked to every citizens private everyday
  life.
• Current geopolitical conflicts in fossil energy
  supply refer to new developments of globalisation
  where persistent turbulences of oil prises in
  global markets and rapidly advancing climate
  change have pushed the super-states (the OECD and
  the EU) and their member states to revise their
  economic, industrial and energy policy
  strategies. These policies aim at economic growth
  by trying to solve the problem of globalisation
  on economic terms.

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• For example, in the view of the EU (2007, 3)
  Europe needs to act now, together to deliver
  sustainable, secure and competitive energy.
• By looking closer at this type of argumentation
  one can find both attempts to construct a
  coherent and versatile policy but also
  reflections of deeper and more complex tensions
  than were the earlier tensions between the
  problem of economic growth vs. environmental
  sustainability of any energy source.
• An important set of problems is related to the
  attempts to search for new alternative energy
  solutions, to enhance the security of energy
  supply and at the same time to estimate their
  efficiency and economic competitiveness.
• New alternative energies refer to the production
  of renewable energies and new energy
  technologies.
• The aspirations to produce clean energy from
  the climate change viewpoint have also brought
  into the energy policy discussion the promotion
  of nuclear energy production, an issue that
  during the last decades has been full of interest
  controversies.

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• 5. THE OECD AND THE EUROPEAN UNION PREPARING
  ENERGY POLICIES AS NEW CORPORATE ACTORS
• Changing corporatism has given space to a
  de-national goal setting where the OECD and the
  EU are the most important.
• Despite aspirations to develop a coherent and
  versatile strategy the issues of energy-policy
  are strongly politicised and controversial.
• The traditional tensions have been related to the
  problem of economic growth vs. environmental
  sustainability of any energy source. The new ones
  question the validity of the knowledge economy
  thesis and its over-estimations of market
  competitiveness and eco-efficiency of new energy
  technologies.
• New changes of geopolitical power can be
  estimated through the recent dramatic rises of
  world-market energy prices. Earlier the level of
  prices went upwards but also downwards. Now high
  price level seems to be a permanent phenomenon.
  This development will revise the power structures
  between the rich oil producing countries and the
  rich and poor energy needing countries.

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• In 2007 the EU has published new goals for a
  European energy- and climate policy. These are
  thought to provide new ideas for the respective
  decision-making.
• A key idea in the EU policy is to reduce CO2
  emission in order to prevent climate change. The
  EU itself will reduce this emission by 20 by the
  2020. If other industrialised countries will do
  the same, the EU is ready for a reduction up to
  30.
• In the EU-programme energy and environmental
  technologies are the major means for a revised
  energy policy.
• Also cooperation with Asia and Russia are among
  the most important actions.
• Both in the OECDs and EUs views, energy is
  essential for the member countries to function.
  Rapidly advancing climate change, increasing
  import dependency and higher energy prices make
  it evident that the days of cheap energy are
  over.
• Europe needs to act now together to deliver
  sustainable, secure and competitive energy.

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• There is much talk of new solidarity reflecting
  the ideas of new European corporatist action.
  This a hard task for the EU as it has noted that
  the present energy policies within the EU are not
  sustainable. At the same time when Europe is
  becoming increasingly dependent on imported
  hydrocarbons there will be potential political
  and economic risks.
• The main questions are how to achieve
  competitive energy prices and energy savings at
  the same time?
• And how to proceed when the primary strategic
  objectives are
• - Combating climate change
• - Minimising the EUs external vulnerability to
  important hydro-carbons
• - Promoting growth and jobs
• - Promoting sustainability
• - Maintaining the security of supply
• Within these limits there is a revitalisation of
  the future role of nuclear power.
• In the view of the EU, nuclear power is less
  vulnerable to fuel price changes than coal or
  gas-fired generation.

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• 6. FINLAND ENERGY SAVINGS AND A MULTISOURCE
  ENERGY PRODUCTION
• High uses of energy are characteristic of
  Finland. The basic structure of industry (pulp
  metal) is very energy intensive.
• The climate is also hard and cold, and the
  situation of the country is remote.
• The modernization process in Finland demonstrates
  a transfer from renewable energies (wood,
  water-power, turf) to the use of imported fossil
  energies (oil gas).
• Today there is a government-led discussion of the
  supply of energy and of the need of a strategy
  that will make the country more self-sufficient.
  The government has also expressed aims to
  reconsider the possibilities to save energy in
  industry, public administration and in the use of
  individual citizens.
• At the same time the future scenarios talk of a
  rapid growth of the use of energy.
• The discussions of energy supply are related in
  Finland to the issues of electricity markets
  where the market price is important as it has a
  direct impact on the formation of national prices
  and on the risks that high market prices tend to
  have to national economy.

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• Multi-source energy production is therefore seen
  as promoting competitive energy markets and as
  reducing the risks that result from a turbulent
  energy production.
• The current Prime Minister Vanhanens Cabinet
  (2007 - ) pays attention to the importance of
  energy policy and climate change in a variety of
  ways.
• The energy issues have been introduced into the
  core of political discussion only in recent
  years. For example in the Prime Minister
  Lipponens Cabinet Programme from 1995 the
  problem of energy was related to environmental
  problems.
• In its recent energy policy guidelines the
  government agrees on the EUs proposal to reduce
  CO2 emission by 20 up to 2020.
• A specific emphasis is on the development of new
  bio-energy products, such as bio-fuels, bio-gas
  and bio-mass.
• For a country that has industrialized late, the
  recent reorientation indicates a rise of the
  political value of agriculture and forestry.
• Aside from the wind and water energy the
  government is ready to support the development of
  the modern forms of bio-energy.

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• Accordingly in order to maintain the key elements
  of a knowledge-based economy, i.e. the growth of
  the economy and high provision of jobs, the
  country should pursue a progressive energy and
  climate change policy.
• In this respect the government in Finland tends
  to see the country as a forerunner in the
  production of bio-energy.
• Finally, it is worth of noting that the tensions
  that were earlier evident in the political
  dispute whether its is necessary to build the 5th
  nuclear power station or not, has not appeared
  when the discussion of the 6th nuclear power
  station has started.
• Aside from the former state-owned enterprises
  Fortum and TVO, a coalition of Finnish and German
  partners from big cities, industry and business
  have established Fennovoima that aims at building
  the 6th nuclear power station.
• In all Finnish visions of a multi-scale energy
  policy, technological development and its
  applications are supposed to be the main elements
  to create new and innovative energy technologies.
  In fact there is a new corporatist agreement of
  the importance of these kinds of technological
  advancements.

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• 7. Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK)
• In its latest arguments for recognizing the
  demands for a new energy policy, the
  Confederation of Finnish Industries emphasizes
  the following issues
• Securing the supply of energy energy is a
  precondition for the functioning of the society.
• Despite of reducing emissions, the need for
  energy is growing and electricity consumption is
  expected to continue its increase gt new nuclear
  power plants are needed when the old ones are
  closed.
• The use of different energy sources tend to
  promote competition and enhance the delivery and
  distribution of energy.
• Climate change is best regulated by using
  low-emission sources of energy, such as nuclear
  energy, renewable energy and increasing energy
  efficiency.
• The use of renewable sources of energy can be
  promoted through research and development.

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• Finland is a partner in Nordic electricity
  markets but in the long run it is feasible to
  open up towards the joint-European markets.
• Emissions trading system needs to be fixed.
• Energy efficiency is important in reducing the
  production costs of energy the challenge is to
  find incentives for all users of energy gt the
  energy efficiency of individual companies has
  been improved since the late 1990s by voluntary
  conservation agreements.
• In order to reduce costs the electricity taxation
  should be lowered to EUs minimum level.

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• 8. The Central Union of Agricultural Producers
  and Forest Owners (MTK)
• The MTK has in turn emphasized the following
  issues
• It is necessary to promote self-dependency and
  renewable energy production.
• Finland is already a leading country in the use
  of bio-energy gt sustainable use of renewable
  resources forestry, food production, water
  protection.
• Rural entrepreneurship should also be promoted in
  bio-energy. The preservation of jobs among the
  rural population is highlighted as rural jobs
  guarantee sustainable wood production.
• The Union promotes renewable energy and is
  ambitious in its goals the use of bio-energy
  should be increased by 40 by 2020.
• The balanced development of energy supply by
  subsidizing renewable energy sources requires
  added government investments as well as
  collaboration among the administrative fields.

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• Meeting the demands of EU incentives are needed
  in tax, environment, forest and energy policies.
• The rural bio-energy resources are the means to
  accomplish the EUs goals to reduce emissions and
  to increase renewable energy

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• REFERENCES
• Commission of the European Communities (2007)
  Communication from the Commission to the European
  Council and the European Parliament An Energy
  Policy for Europe (Sec (2007)12). COM (2007) 1
  Final. Brussels 10.1.2007.
• Jessop, Bob (2005) The European Union and Recent
  Transformations in Statehood, in Sonja Puntscher
  Riekmann (eds.) Transformations of Statehood
  from a European Perspective. Cambridge University
  Press
• (also http//www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/sociology/papers
  /Jessop-eu-transformations-statehood.pdf.)
• Molina, Oscar Rhodes, Martin (2002)
  Corporatism The Past, Present, and Future of a
  Concept. Annual Review of Political Science, Vol.
  5, 305-331.
• Prime Minister Vanhanens Cabinet Programme 2007.
• Shonfield, Andrew (1965) Modern Capitalism the
  Changing Balance of Public and Private Power.
  Oxford, UK Oxford University Press.

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