Semiperiferisen Suomen taloudellinen ja poliittinen kehitys

The article deals with the Finnish development in the world economy from the world system perspective.The examination focuses on the semi-peripheral stage and its reflections in the politicalstructure. Until the 1920’s Finland remained an agrarian and peripheral country but then, in the1930’s, it transformed into a semi-periphery. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Finland went through a deepeconomic and social change which eventually led, by the turn of the 1990’s at the latest, to atransition into the core. The semi-peripheral stage was connected to the unstable political life inFinland. In that era, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) led a victorious struggle against other antisystemic(nationalist and communist) movements and finally against the Agrarian League (thecurrent Centre Party). Since the late 1960’s, SDP reached almost a hegemonic position in Finnishpolitical life for about the next three decades. Together with strong presidential power, the SDPhegemony stabilized the Finnish political life and promoted the transformation from the semi-peripheryto the core