Politics
I am a liberal. I believe in individual freedom and limited government. I think government should provide internal and external security (police and army) and ensure that each citizen has basic necessities to survive (food and a place to live) and has access to basic health care and basic education. Outside of that, government should not interfere with individual`s life.
(More precisely, I`m somewhere between classical liberal (or libertarian) and social liberal. Term "Softcore Libertarian" might be close. My score on World`s Smallest Political Quiz: Personal Self-Government 100%, Economic Self-Government 80%.)
Some miscallaneous points:
- Government should not grant monopolies, privileges or subsidies to any particular company, industry, organization or religious group.
- Law should not contain victimless crimes.
- Direct democracy is better than representative democracy.
- Even the best of democracies is still tyranny by majority. Where possible, decisions should be made individually rather than collectively.
Organizations
- DEFENS (mostly fi)
- Defends human rights, individual liberty and free trade.
- Electronic Frontier Finland ry
- Organization promoting freedom of speech, personal privacy and user rights in copyright laws.
- Humaania päihdepolitiikkaa HPP ry (fi)
- Järjestö ajaa muitakin vaihtoehtoja päihdepolitiikalle kuin pelkät kiellot ja rangaistukset.
- Human Rights Watch
- Independent, nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting human rights and exposing violations. Accepts no government funding, only donations from private individuals and organizations.
- Liberaalit (mostly fi)
- Puolue, jonka aatteesta ja tavoitteista olen varsin pitkälle samaa mieltä. Käytännön toteutuksessa tosin on vielä tekemistä.
- Statewatch
- Monitoring the state and civil liberties in the European Union.
- Vapaa-ajattelijain liitto (fi)
- Uskonnottomien järjestö. Tavoitteena molempien valtionkirkkojen erottaminen valtiosta.
Articles and blogs
- A Drug War Carol
- An online comic loosely based on a well-known Christmas story.
- Finland for Thought
- Blog by an American who has recently moved to Finland. Offers often useful outsider's insight to Finland and Finns. This should gather him solid following, considering how obsessed we Finns are about how other people see us.
- Finnish libertarian blog (mostly fi)
- Useamman suomalaisen libertaariaktiivin ylläpitämä blogi.
- Introduction to Public Choice Theory
- One of the reasons why organizations (like government) have the tendency to grow in size and inefficiency unless external factors force it to remain small and efficient.
- Thoughtery (en/fi)
- Liberal blog by Patrick Uotinen. Contains both Finnish and English entries.
- Thoghts from Id (en/fi)
- Blog by Mikko Särelä Contains both English and Finnish entries.
- Vapaasana.net (fi)
- Verkkolehti. Runsaasti hyviä artikkeleita.
- World`s Smallest Political Quiz
- To find out where you stand on the political map.
Election methods
- ElectionMethods.org
- Different election methods explained and compared. Advocates the Condorcet method.
- Kalle Mikkolan STV-vaalijärjestelmäsivu (mostly fi)
- Nykyään eduskuntavaaleissa käytetty d`Hondtin vaalijärjestelmä on oikeastaan aika huono: ehdokkaalle annettu ääni saattaa pahimmassa tapauksessa myötävaikuttaa ihan väärän henkilön valintaan. STV (Single Transferable Vote)-vaalijärjestelmä on yksi ehdotus paremmaksi vaihtoehdoksi.
- Voting system-page in Wikipedia
- Plenty of information about different voting systems.
- Äänestämisen ongelmia (fi)
- Veli Peltolan artikkeli tiedelehti Seepiassa.
Discussion forums
- Liberaalifoormi(fi)
- Puolueisiin sitoutumaton keskustelufoorumi liberalismista.
- Vapausfoormi(fi)
- Keskustelua libertarismista, jota voitaneen pitää liberalismin radikaalina haarana.
- #liberalismi (fi)
- IRC kanava, jolla liberaaliaktiivit tapaavat roikkua.
People
- Simo S. Hämäläinen (fi)
- Poliittisesti aktiivinen sinivihreä klassisen liberalismin kannattaja. Paljon kirjoituksia ja kannanottoja.
- Toni Heinonen (fi)
- Täältä löytyy mm. Markkinatalous-FAQ.
- Johan Norberg
- Swedish writer, author of In Defence of Global Capitalism. Worth checking is also his Questions and Answers about Capitalism.
- Mika Mustalahti
- Another active liberal. Currently (2007) the secretary of the Finnish Liberal Party
- Sampo Syreeni
- has written a host of interesting texts, some of them political. (fi: Sivuilta löytyy myös suomenkielinen Libertarismi-FAQ.)
Last update 2007-09-30 / jln@iki.fi