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Politics and government of
FinlandThe state of Finland consists of 6 provinces (Finnish läänit, Swedish län). The provincial authority is part of the central government's executive branch, not directly elected. The system was created in 1634, and its makeup was changed drastically in 1997, when the number of the provinces was reduced from 12 to 6. This effectively made them purely administrative units, as linguistic and cultural boundaries do not follow the borders of the provinces. The provinces will be abolished altogether in 2010.[1]
Since the late 19th century the state of Finland has been bilingual. Its governmental offices and agencies use both domestic languages in contacts with the public. Each province is led by a governor (maaherra, landshövding) who is appointed by the president on the recommendation of the cabinet. The governor is the head of the State Provincial Office (lääninhallitus, länsstyrelse), which acts as the joint regional authority for seven ministries in the following domains
The official administrative subentities under the Provincial Office authorities are the Registry Offices (Finnish maistraatti, Swedish magistrat). Formerly there was a division to state local districts (Finnish kihlakunta, Swedish härad), which were districts for police, prosecution, and bailiff services, but there was reorganization such that 24 police districts were founded. These usually encompass multiple municipalities.
