Provincial administration in Finland
For most of Finnish history, the provincial administration represented the system of state administration at the regional level. The provinces ( Finnish lääni , Swedish län ) were not a self-governing body , but part of the executive branch of the respective central government. The provincial governments had extensive tasks in the area of general administration and administrative supervision. At their head was a governor who was appointed by the respective head of state.
The division of Finland into provinces goes back to the administrative structure of the Swedish Empire , to which Finland belonged until 1809. In their institutionalized form, the provinces were created by the constitution of 1634. The provinces were rearranged in various ways, but their essential features were retained. In the post-war period there were initially ten, from 1960 twelve provinces. After the provincial structure increasingly no longer met the requirements of a modern administration, the provinces were initially reduced to six in 1997 in a series of reforms, until they were finally abolished in 2010 and replaced by a new regional administration structure.
Medieval castle provinces
The nucleus of the provincial division were the medieval castle provinces (Swedish slottslän , Finnish linnalääni ). The castle province was the basic unit of secular administration, while essential tasks of local administration were fulfilled within the framework of the parallel ecclesiastical administrative structure. The center of each castle province was a castle headed by a royal governor .
The emergence of the individual castle provinces cannot regularly be precisely dated and is directly related to the gradual development and stabilization of the rule of the Swedish king over Finnish territory. The respective governors were responsible for the administration of justice , the collection of taxes and for the defense in their castle province . The taxes were due to the king, but a share was due to the castle and the governor.
From the 14th century, sub-units of secular administration were gradually formed under the name administrative socks (Swedish jordebokssocken , Finnish hallintopitäjä ). King Gustav I. Wasa (1523-1560) arranged for the castle provinces to be divided into smaller bailiwicks , which were given sovereignty over tax collection and the state budget. As royal officials, the bailiffs were directly responsible to the king, who was able to consolidate his control over the administration of the area.
Around 1600 there were the following nine castle provinces in what is now Finland:
- The castle province of Kastelholm , from which the Åland landscape was administered. Kastelholm Castle was first mentioned in a document in 1388.
- The castle province of Åbo ( Turku ) is the starting point of Swedish rule over the Finnish mainland. Turku Castle was built in the second half of the 13th century.
- Burg Province Raseborg (Raasepori) under the same castle dated, whose first written mention from the year 1378th
- The castle province of Viborg (Viipuri) under the Vyborg Castle , which was built in 1293 , was an important defensive post of the Swedish Empire against Russia for a long time. The province included all of eastern Finland for a long time before the castle provinces of Nyslott and Borgå were split off in the 16th century.
- The castle province of Tavastehus ( Hämeenlinna ) was under the control of Häme Castle, which was built in the second half of the 13th century in today's Hämeenlinna.
- The castle province of Kumogård (Kokemäenkartano) comprised the Satakunta landscape from the early 14th century and was under a mansion in Kokemäki . The associated castle was destroyed in 1367.
- The castle, which forms the center of the castle province of Korsholm (Korsholma), was built after 1370. The province covered the entire northern part of what was then Finland.
- The castle province of Nyslott ( Savonlinna ) was subordinate to the Olavinlinna castle, which was built in the 15th century in today's city of Savonlinna.
- The castle province of Borgå ( Porvoo ) emerged in the 16th century from a bailiwick under the castle province of Viborg.
Introduction and development of the provincial administration
The Swedish constitution of 1634 created a formalized framework for the regional administration of the empire for the first time. The imperial area was divided into provinces (Swedish län , Finnish lääni ). Provincial administration was taken over by provincial governments (Swedish länsstyrelsen , Finnish lääninhallitus ) under the chairmanship of a governor (Swedish landshövding , Finnish maaherra ). The provincial governors were the direct representatives of the royal government in the provinces. The provincial administration was given a wide range of tasks. In addition to general administration and executive power, this included the maintenance of security and order, the supervision of the construction of towns and roads and the royal financial administration.
The administrative structure and tasks of the provinces survived the radical changes in the Finnish state structure. Neither the transition of Finland under Russian rule as an autonomous grand duchy in 1809 nor the independence of Finland in 1917 brought about major reforms of the regional administration.
Changes were made to the number and layout of the provinces. In 1634, four provinces were formed in what is now Finland. In the centuries that followed, the provinces were redistributed several times, increasing the number of provinces each time. Changes in the state borders also repeatedly forced the provinces to be redistributed. In the Peace of Nystad in 1721, Sweden lost most of the provinces of Viborg and Kexholm to Russia. The remaining parts were combined to form the new province of Kymmenegård . When the so-called Old Finland was annexed to the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1812, a new province of Vyborg was formed from it. The largest part had to be ceded to the Soviet Union as a result of the Continuation War in 1944 , the remaining parts became the province of Kymi. For a few years Petsamo , which was ceded to Finland in the Peace of Dorpat , was its own province, but was then added to the province of Oulu and later to the province of Lapland .
After the two new provinces of Central Finland and North Karelia had been formed in 1960, Finland consisted of the following twelve provinces until 1997:
Reforms and replacement of the provinces
In the post-war period, the tasks of public administration began to grow steadily. From the 1960s in particular, the importance of the administration as a regulator in all areas of economic life increased. The establishment of more and more specialized authorities outside the provincial administrations gradually led to a fragmentation of the administration, which was ultimately perceived as ineffective and remote from the citizens. Attempts have been made to counter this development with various reforms. The main lines of development of these reforms led, on the one hand, to a consolidation and centralization of the specialist administration, through which a better use of the know-how available in the various authorities was sought, and, on the other hand, to a shift in regional planning to community associations closer to the citizens. The final point of these reforms was the complete replacement of the provinces on January 1, 2010.
Initially, the provincial administrations were given new tasks by other authorities in the 1970s and 1980s. At the beginning of the 1990s, new municipal associations were formed for regional planning, the so-called landscape associations (Finnish maakuntaliitto , Swedish landskapsförbund ). These cooperation bodies formed by the municipal administrations were intended to ensure planning administration that was closer to the citizens and led to the elimination of a traditional area of responsibility for the provincial administrations.
The 1997 provincial reform cut the number of provinces from twelve to six. The autonomous province of Åland and the already very large provinces of Oulu and Lapland were not affected by the reform. The remaining provinces were reorganized as follows:
- The provinces of Kuopio, North Karelia and most of the Mikkeli province to eastern Finland
- The provinces of Kymi, Uusimaa, the southern part of the province of Häme and a small part of the province of Mikkeli to the south of Finland
- The provinces of Central Finland, Turku-Pori, Vaasa and the northern part of the province of Häme to western Finland
The previous provinces essentially continued under the name landscape (Finnish maakunta , Swedish landskap ), but without having any significance as a state administrative unit. The landscape associations continued to exist as communal cooperation units. From 1997 to 2009, as a result of this reform, the following provincial division existed:
| province | Capital | Residents | Area in km² | Landscapes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Åland | Mariehamn | 26,000 | 6,784 | Åland |
| Lapland | Rovaniemi | 188,000 | 98,946 | Lapland |
| Oulu | Oulu | 455,000 | 57,000 | Kainuu , Northern Ostrobothnia |
| Eastern Finland | Mikkeli | 588,000 | 48,726 | North Karelia , North Savo , South Savo |
| Southern Finland | Hämeenlinna | 2,000,000 | 34,378 | Kanta-Häme , Kymenlaakso Ostuusimaa , Päijät-Häme , South Karelia , Uusimaa |
| Western Finland | Turku | 1,840,000 | 74.185 | Central Finland , Central Ostrobothnia , Österbotten , Pirkanmaa , Satakunta , Southern Ostrobothnia , Varsinais-Suomi |
In a further reform, the provinces were finally completely abandoned at the beginning of 2010. The state regional administration was completely reorganized. For the purpose of general administrative supervision, six regional administrative authorities (Finnish aluehallintovirasto , Swedish regionförvaltningsverk ) were established; the government's tasks in various areas requiring special technical expertise were grouped into 15 commercial, traffic and environmental centers (Finnish elinkeino-, liikenne- ja ympäristökeskus , Swedish närings-, trafik- och miljöcentralen ). In addition to the tasks of the previous provinces, both levels also exercise the tasks of various other, also dissolved, administrative units.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Eino Jutikkala: Suomen historian kartasto. WSOY, Porvoo 1949.
- ↑ Lääninhallitus valtion aluehallintoviranomaisena 375 vuotta . Historical representation on the website of the (former) provincial administrations.
- ↑ Läänit jäävät historiaan . Report from the state broadcaster YLE.