Tapio Raunio

My research focuses on representative democracy and political institutions, both in the context of national politics and at the European level. My main research interests are 

• Legislatures and political parties
• Presidents and governments
• The European Parliament and Europarties
• Foreign and security policy decision-making
• The Finnish political system

Google Scholar ResearchGate ORCID

Semi-presidential regimes and presidential activism

I was the principal investigator of Taming the presidents? Exploring the links between presidential activism, policy-making capacity, and regime legitimacy, a four-year project (2020-2024) funded by the Research Council of Finland. The project examined the links between presidential activism, policy-making capacity, and regime legitimacy. Among its outputs is a Special Issue of Political Studies Review on presidential activism: Political Studies Review – Volume 23, Number 1, Feb 01, 2025. The collection includes articles on various types of presidential activism and covers countries in Europe and Africa. I co-edited the Special Issue with Thomas Sedelius. Thomas and I have also co-authored a book published by Palgrave, Semi-Presidential Policy-Making in Europe: Executive Coordination and Political Leadership (2020), which analyzed coordination between the president and the government in Finland, Lithuania, and Romania.

Legislatures, ideologies, and foreign and security policy

Together with Wolfgang Wagner (VU Amsterdam, https://wolfgang-wagner.org/) we have studied the role of national legislatures and political parties as well as the European Parliament in foreign and security policy. We co-edited a Special Issue of West European Politics which analyzed legislative-executive relations in foreign affairs (West European Politics: Vol 40, No 1), also published as a Routledge book Challenging Executive Dominance: Legislatures and Foreign Affairs, and a special issue of Foreign Policy Analysis which focused on the role of political parties and ideologies in foreign and security policy (Volume 16 Issue 4 | Foreign Policy Analysis | Oxford Academic).

Europarties and transnational partisan coalitions

We have also published several papers on government communication and I was glad to be part of an edited volume, Close and Distant: Political Executive–Media Relations in Four Countries, comparing government-media links in Finland, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden.

Publications in Finnish

I also believe in the value of producing scientific publications in Finnish. Throughout my career I have worked extensively with my Finnish colleagues, particularly co-editing various volumes on Finnish politics and the EU. All of these have been used as course material or exam books in Finnish higher education institutions. Juho Saari (Tampere University) and I have co-edited several books on European integration. The most recent ones are Reunalla vai ytimessä? Suomen EU-politiikan muutos ja jatkuvuus from 2017 which analysed Finnish EU policy, and Moninaisuudessaan yhtenäinen? Euroopan unionin suunta from 2021, which focused on the current challenges facing the EU.

Select publications

In English

The European Perspective: Transnational Party Groups in the 1989-1994 European Parliament (Ashgate, 1997).

Finland in the European Union (& Teija Tiilikainen, Frank Cass, 2003).

National Parliaments within the Enlarged European Union: From victims of integration to competitive actors? (co-edited with John O’Brennan, Routledge, 2007).

Connecting with the Electorate? Parliamentary Communication in EU Affairs. Journal of Legislative Studies 20:1, 2014 (co-edited with Katrin Auel; published in 2015 by Routledge as Parliamentary Communication in EU Affairs: Connecting with the Electorate?).

The Changing Balance of Political Power in Finland (co-edited with Lauri Karvonen and Heikki Paloheimo, Santérus Academis Press, 2016).

Challenging Executive Dominance: Legislatures and Foreign Affairs. West European Politics 40:1, 2017 (co-edited with Wolfgang Wagner).

Constituency Representation in the Nordic Countries. Representation 54:1, 2018 (co-edited with David Arter).

Semi-Presidential Policy-Making in Europe: Executive Coordination and Political Leadership (& Thomas Sedelius, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

Political Parties and Foreign Policy. Foreign Policy Analysis 16:4, 2020 (co-edited with Wolfgang Wagner).

Transnational Parties and Advocacy in European Integration (& Karl Magnus Johansson, Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).

Presidential activism. Political Studies Review 23:1, 2025 (co-edited with Thomas Sedelius).

In Finnish

Liittovaltiot: Federalismin teoria ja arki (Gaudeamus, 2002).

Eurooppalaistuminen: Suomen sopeutuminen Euroopan integraatioon (co-edited with Juho Saari, Gaudeamus, 2006).

Euroopan tulevaisuus (co-edited with Juho Saari, Gaudeamus, 2007).

Suomen puolueet ja puoluejärjestelmä (co-edited with Heikki Paloheimo, WSOY, 2008).

Euroopan paras maa? Suomen muuttuva asema Euroopan unionissa (co-edited with Juho Saari, Gaudeamus, 2013).

Politiikan muutos (co-edited with Tuomas Forsberg, Vastapaino, 2014).

Eduskunta: Kansanvaltaa puolueiden ja hallituksen ehdoilla (co-edited with Matti Wiberg, Gaudeamus, 2014).

Reunalla vai ytimessä? Suomen EU-politiikan muutos ja jatkuvuus (co-edited with Juho Saari, Gaudeamus, 2017).

Poliittinen valta Suomessa (co-edited with Mari K. Niemi and Ilkka Ruostetsaari, Vastapaino, 2017).

Moninaisuudessaan yhtenäinen? Euroopan unionin suunta (co-edited with Juho Saari, Gaudeamus, 2021).