Abstract

This article analyses the consequences of institutional and organisational arrangements for the legitimacy of the governance of Finnish public forests. It focuses on normative legitimacy, which comprises input legitimacy (accountability), throughput legitimacy (power relationships, transparency and inclusiveness) and output legitimacy (problem-solving capacity). These components, and the challenges involved in them, are analysed in relation to the governance of the Finnish Forest and Park Service. It is a hybrid agency which combines business economic tasks with broader societal duties related to public forests. The article draws on the relevant laws, parliamentary reports and comments, policy and planning documents, as well as interviews with MPs, government officials and agency staff. The discrepancy between written regulations and policies on the one hand, and the actual governance practices and rationalities that guide informants' interpretations and implementation of the regulations on the other, constitutes (in addition to the regulatory vagueness) the key challenge to the system's legitimacy. The Finnish case shows that assigning to Parliament a central formal role in the governance of public forests may serve more as window-dressing than providing genuine legitimacy to the decisions being made, as its actual role is dependent on how - and by whom - such decisions are prepared. The results highlight the importance of inclusiveness and transparency in the governance process; and of concrete, measurable criteria and indicators for each policy goal, against which performance may be assessed on a regular basis. (c) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Legitimacy; Forest governance; Forest policy; Finnish Forest and Park Service; New public management

Published in

Land Use Policy
2014, Volume: 39, pages: 281-291
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

SLU Authors

• Raitio, Kaisa

  • Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalization Studies)
Communication Studies
Public Administration Studies


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.02.008

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/66540