Party Power and Government Formation: A Case Study

This is a report of an analysis of voting power in the Finnish Parliament. The purpose of the analysis was (a) to reveal some characteristics of the indices for measuring a priori voting power, (b) to discuss the descriptive power of the chosen indices with respect to the composition of government, (c) to gain additional insight in the parliamentary system of Finland. Various power indices were calculated and compared to seat ratios and participation in Government. The numerical results indicate that some characteristics of Government formation, which are thought to be caused by an ideological bias, may as well be “explained” by the power indices. Two parties, the left-wing Democratic Union of the Finnish People (SKDL), and the right-wing Conservative Party (Kok), seem to be the victims of the numerical structure of the Finnish Parliament.