The Role of Citizens’ Suggestions in a Policy Process – A Case Study of Long Power Outages in Finland

Authors

  • Markku Kinnunen Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v23i3/4.8644

Keywords:

energy policy preparation, citizen participation, policy cycle, content analysis, power outages

Abstract

This paper examines the role of citizens in the process of preparing an energy policy to improve security of supply in an electricity network. It describes a real-life case of thepolicy formulation stage of a policy cycle. This study describes citizens’ suggestions on how to secure electricity networks against severe weather conditions and the role these suggestions played in policy formulation. The data was collected through a citizen surveyand by interviewing civil servants. The citizens’ suggestions were analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis and the interview data was summarised in detail.The results indicate that the citizens’ suggestions did not provide any new answers to thetechnical problem of how to prevent long power outages, and they were not utilised in the policy formulation. However, the citizen survey was part of crisis management during and after the long power outages. We conclude by discussing the degree to whichcitizens’ suggestions are useful for the authorities and distribution system operators in a wider context, as well as the lessons learned from citizen participation.

 

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Author Biography

Markku Kinnunen, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland

Markku Kinnunen is Chief Counsellor at the Energy department of the Ministry of Economy Affairs and Employment of Finland. He is responsible for coordination of the preparation of national energy and climate strategies and Finland’s representative to that related activities in the European Union working groups. Prior his career in the ministry he worked in the National Energy Authority and as a teaching assistant and researcher in the Power Systems Laboratory at the Helsinki University of Technology (nowadays Aalto University). His research interest is citizen participation in energy policy decision making.

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Published

2019-12-13

How to Cite

Kinnunen, M. (2019). The Role of Citizens’ Suggestions in a Policy Process – A Case Study of Long Power Outages in Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration, 23(3/4), 83–110. https://doi.org/10.58235/sjpa.v23i3/4.8644

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Section

Original Articles

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