ABSTRACT
This chapter turns attention to outcomes by analyzing the attitudes, values and perceptions of individual policymakers and citizens, which affect the outcomes of policies and the possibilities for democracies to make future-regarding choices. Using various original survey data sets, we examine general and political temporal orientations of national-level policymakers and compare them with those of ordinary citizens and local-level politicians who have not been affected by the national-level foresight ecosystem. The analysis demonstrates that national-level policymakers are more future-oriented in their political thinking than citizens local politicians, and that policymakers have more future-regarding attitudes also outside the political domain. However, Finnish citizens also, on average, demonstrate relatively future-regarding political attitudes, suggesting that voters may not necessarily pose a significant hurdle for future-regarding policymaking. Policymakers themselves typically consider the logic of electoral politics and the hectic pace of social media as the primary factors that push policymaking toward short-term solutions, rather than future-regarding policy investments. They suggest lowering thresholds for cross-sectorial policy preparation and increased use of scientific expertise as possible remedies, which corresponds with the operating philosophy of the ministry-led foresight system in Finland. Reflecting the risks for the system's survival, the chapter also demonstrates the significantly shorter temporal perspectives of voters of a nationalist-populist party.
