Revista Economia n. 13.pmd - Faap

This dimension is closely associated with the autonomy vs. dependence of
the state on its external environment. Extreme autonomy can mean isolation
that is hardly a desirable aim, while extreme dependence leads to dangerous
vulnerability. The best solution is reached by an open economy that is integrated
in a roughly equitable manner in the world system. In that situation, the country
is able to fetch profits from the world market and use them for its internal
development. The success in this task requires workable political institutions
and the integration of state and society into a whole.
A standard approach to the study of world politics separates two approaches
– geopolitics and the world economy – from each other. The geopolitics approach
stresses the constellations of power and spatial arrangements in which the
expanding and shrinking borders define the positions of nations. The world
economy approach focuses on the positions of societies in the international
division of labor and especially in the center-periphery structures.
There is often a creative tension between the geopolitical and economic
positions of a nation. Richard Rosecrance has made an useful distinction between
the “territorial state” and the “trading state”. These ideal types do not have,
however, the same meaning as before because an increasing number of states
have been moving from the territorial emphasis to trading focus and combine
these two functions. Thus, for instance, Brazil and China have traditionally been
territorial states, but now their growing integration in the world economy means
that they assume more features of the trading state.
Finland, though a relatively small country, has historically had a geopolitical
orientation to consolidate its territory and occasionally expand to the East. In
economic terms, Finland has been a peripheral country whose production
structure has been geared to agriculture and forestry with the low foreign-trade
content. Over time, the Finnish economy has become more developed and diverse,
and has obtained strong features of a trading state in which much emphasis has
been put on science, technology, and innovation. This article aims to trace the
story of how politics and economics have interacted in the historical development
of the nation.
Indeed, often a long-term perspective is needed to capture the essential
dynamics of a country’s political and economic development. The focus on
short-term fluctuations easily means that one misses trees for the forest. This
would be especially unfortunate in a country, Finland, in which much of the
historical impetus for economic growth has been derived from the forestry!
Finland’s political independence is only 90 years old. It was preceded by
some 600 years of association with Sweden and over 100 years as a Grand Duchy
in the Russian empire. In fact, also Sweden’s international position had imperial
features, especially in the so-called great-power period in the 17 th and early 18 th
centuries. The imperial expansion of Russia and Sweden meant geopolitical
collisions and the territories in the unstable border zones were continuously
exposed to war and destitution. For centuries, Finland was in many ways an
unfortunate interface periphery.
Ninety years of Finland’s independence: transition from the periphery..., Raimo Väyrynen, p. 134-146
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