PARLIAMENT AND DEMOCRACY - Inter-Parliamentary Union

3. Technology assessment. This has been a central concern of the Committee
from the outset, and has seen three generations of projects, the first mainly
commissioned from outside research institutes, the second and third involving
much more direct participation of parliamentarians in working groups
alongside external experts. Topics selected have included knowledge
management, energy supply and renewables, social capital and information
technology, regional innovation systems. The Committee has close links
with other European parliaments through the European Parliamentary
Technology Assessment network (EPTA).
The Committee’s method of working is described as follows:
Facing the future I 195
The Committee for the Future’s operating model differs, in its openness
and innovativeness, from the activity of other committees. The committee
has toured the provinces and held regional forums. It also looks
constantly for new working approaches by adapting Delphi and other
methods of futures research, by hearing young people as well as older
and experienced individuals in the public discussion, by utilizing
new data technology, and by performing comparative international
studies……
In the committee’s activity, the line between national and international
breaks down: no longer merely national, the future’s challenges, in an
increasingly open world, are more and more strongly international.
Since its more than ten years of activity began, the committee, in
performing its analyses, has in this regard given particular attention to
factors that pervade the society. In the 1990s the committee delineated
the factors pervading Finnish society – globalization, science and
technology, innovations, and governance. For the Parliament of
Finland’s 100 th anniversary in 2006 and 2007 the Committee for the
Future has chosen the future of democracy as a theme.
A final comment from the Parliament’s submission about the agendasetting
power of this Committee is also worth quoting:
It is an adage of political life at any level that the first step to power is
to take the initiative and put yourself in a position where you can set
the agenda. In the Eduskunta, the Committee for the Future has taken
this adage seriously from the beginning. The Committee has been working
for only ten years, so it is too early to say if it has been a success.
One thing is certain, however; the Committee has taken its place in the