ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the emergence and institutionalization of the Finnish national foresight system, which today provides Finnish policymakers capacity and legitimacy for more future-oriented policymaking. The chapter begins with a historical description of the main societal and institutional features of the Finnish political system, which facilitated the emergence and consolidation of the national foresight system. It then describes the institutional framework of the foresight system, which comprises of several individual components that emerged semi-independently during a three-decade long historical development trajectory. The initiative for future-regarding policymaking that was initially championed by futures scholars in the 1970s gradually gained momentum in the Finnish parliament in the 1980s and ultimately resulted in the formalization of a future dialogue between the parliament and the government in the early 1990s. The parliamentary standing Committee for the Future gained a permanent status in 2000, setting a benchmark for the rest of the world, and at this historical juncture also the government ministries and organized non-state actors started to establish organized foresight activities that in time merged with their ordinary policy preparation processes. The chapter especially highlights the gradually increasing role of non-elected ministry experts in the substance-related and coordinative functions of the broader national foresight system.
