ABSTRACT
As shown in the previous chapter, it is debatable whether the concept of corporatism provided for any theoretical advancement to the established pluralist forms of interest intermediation, and whether the concept provided for any increased understanding on how the regularised relationship between governments and the main economic interest groups worked in practice. Instead of trying to explain the development of interest intermediation in Finland by reference to the concept of corporatism, a more fruitful approach is to start with the empirical, in this case the working hours regulations. The first aim of this chapter is therefore to evaluate what the development of working hours regulations can tell about the broad picture of interest intermediation on the labour market in Finland. The second aim is an analysis of whether there is a model of Finnish interest intermediation that can be regarded as having become institutionalised. A question of whether a model has become institutionalised or not is important, since, according to a neo-institutional theoretical framework, institutions are vital in explaining political behaviour.
