Curtailing political short-termism in legislatures: a trade-off between influence and institutionalization?

Abstract Legislatures have recently started to invest in anticipatory governance. Alongside new practices, they have introduced designated future committees and organs that connect MPs to future-regarding visioning and advice. Two decades ago, only Finland had a ‘future committee’, today broadly sim...

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Main Authors: Vesa Koskimaa, Tapio Raunio
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2023-09-01
Series:European Journal of Futures Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40309-023-00220-2
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author Vesa Koskimaa
Tapio Raunio
author_facet Vesa Koskimaa
Tapio Raunio
author_sort Vesa Koskimaa
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Legislatures have recently started to invest in anticipatory governance. Alongside new practices, they have introduced designated future committees and organs that connect MPs to future-regarding visioning and advice. Two decades ago, only Finland had a ‘future committee’, today broadly similar organs exist in 10 countries around the world. While signaling an important attempt to take expert-driven anticipatory governance closer to voters, legislative future organs may become short-lasting or remain politically weak, as their efforts to gain power typically threaten established legislative actors. To examine this emerging tension, we theoretically distinguish the unorthodox methods of future committees from traditional legislative practices and empirically compare the operation of all existing legislative future committees and similar organs. We uncover a considerable similarity between these institutions that mostly operate outside of the ordinary legislative process. To survive, they must add value to MPs without endangering the existing division of power. Finding this balance enhances the consolidation of legislative future organs, but it simultaneously limits their conventional political impact.
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spelling doaj.art-0e1947eb7958418d9d140559ef84b66e2023-11-19T12:50:59ZengSpringerOpenEuropean Journal of Futures Research2195-22482023-09-0111111510.1186/s40309-023-00220-2Curtailing political short-termism in legislatures: a trade-off between influence and institutionalization?Vesa Koskimaa0Tapio Raunio1Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere UniversityFaculty of Management and Business, Tampere UniversityAbstract Legislatures have recently started to invest in anticipatory governance. Alongside new practices, they have introduced designated future committees and organs that connect MPs to future-regarding visioning and advice. Two decades ago, only Finland had a ‘future committee’, today broadly similar organs exist in 10 countries around the world. While signaling an important attempt to take expert-driven anticipatory governance closer to voters, legislative future organs may become short-lasting or remain politically weak, as their efforts to gain power typically threaten established legislative actors. To examine this emerging tension, we theoretically distinguish the unorthodox methods of future committees from traditional legislative practices and empirically compare the operation of all existing legislative future committees and similar organs. We uncover a considerable similarity between these institutions that mostly operate outside of the ordinary legislative process. To survive, they must add value to MPs without endangering the existing division of power. Finding this balance enhances the consolidation of legislative future organs, but it simultaneously limits their conventional political impact.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40309-023-00220-2LegislaturesCommitteesStrategic foresightFuture-regarding policymaking
spellingShingle Vesa Koskimaa
Tapio Raunio
Curtailing political short-termism in legislatures: a trade-off between influence and institutionalization?
European Journal of Futures Research
Legislatures
Committees
Strategic foresight
Future-regarding policymaking
title Curtailing political short-termism in legislatures: a trade-off between influence and institutionalization?
title_full Curtailing political short-termism in legislatures: a trade-off between influence and institutionalization?
title_fullStr Curtailing political short-termism in legislatures: a trade-off between influence and institutionalization?
title_full_unstemmed Curtailing political short-termism in legislatures: a trade-off between influence and institutionalization?
title_short Curtailing political short-termism in legislatures: a trade-off between influence and institutionalization?
title_sort curtailing political short termism in legislatures a trade off between influence and institutionalization
topic Legislatures
Committees
Strategic foresight
Future-regarding policymaking
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s40309-023-00220-2
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AT tapioraunio curtailingpoliticalshorttermisminlegislaturesatradeoffbetweeninfluenceandinstitutionalization