Authors

• Finnish Business and Policy Forum (EVA)

Keywords

foreign policy, immigration, personal safety, social change, social security, social status, social structure, social welfare finance, trust, values

Abstract

The survey charted the values and attitudes of Finnish people. The main themes of the autumn 2018 survey included social services reformation, immigration, trust in different actors in Finnish society, recent societal changes, security and Finland's foreign policy.

First, the respondents were presented with attitudinal statements regarding different spheres of society, for instance, public services, immigration, the Finnish workforce, NATO membership, Russia and the United States, climate policy, the functionality of democracy, and whether politicians care about ordinary people's lives and opinions.

As regards reforming social services and welfare, respondents' opinions were charted on, for instance, the gratuitousness of welfare, basic security, universal basic income, and the funding and level of social benefits. Views on immigration were charted with attitudinal statements regarding, for instance, strictness of Finnish policy on aliens, social benefits received by immigrants, increased crime due to immigrants, and immigration as an aid to shortage of workforce.

Next, the respondents' views were examined on equality and their own position in Finnish society (e.g. in occupational life, as a taxpayer, in the eyes of authorities). Their trust in different types of actors in society was also charted (e.g. Parliament, church, judicial system, police, enterprises, banks, social media, Wikipedia, the market economy, newspaper press, Google). In addition, the respondents were asked to estimate whether Finland had changed positively or negatively in the previous 10 years in different areas (e.g. Finland's position in Europe, democracy, disparity in income and well-being, standard of education, social security). The next questions charted the respondents' views on the severity of different threats, e.g. armed attack against Finland, cyber attacks, terrorist attack, financial crisis, foreign efforts to interfere with Finnish elections, global warming, pandemic diseases, being a victim of violence. The respondents were asked to evaluate how well different actors (e.g. president, prime minister, foreign minister, the current Government) had handled foreign policy. Finally, the respondents' views on Finland's EU membership and the Euro were examined as well as how the respondents would vote if a referendum were held on Finland's EU membership.

Background variables included gender, age group, type of municipality of residence, region of residence, education level, economic activity and occupational status, type of employer, occupational sector, type of contract, political party preference (which party R would vote for if parliamentary elections were held at the time of the survey), federation of trade unions membership, and self-perceived social class.