Power Relations in the Preparation of the Nondiscrimination Act: The Controversial Issue of Supervising Discrimination in Working Life

ABSTRACT In the context of Europeanisation and neo‐corporatism, we examine the lengthy process of revising the Nondiscrimination Act in Finland, spanning from 2007 to 2023. The focus is on the mandate of the Nondiscrimination Ombudsman in the workplace and on explaining the sudden policy change of strengthening it after a prolonged standstill. The study employs the Advocacy Coalition Framework, especially the approach of Coalition Opportunity Structures, combined with path dependency in relation to legal frames, in examining the struggle between the labour policy coalition and the coalition of human rights advocates. The case exemplifies the intertwining of legal, institutional, and political structures as strategic means and necessary precursors to policy change, which was a breakthrough for the human rights advocates. Yet the ultimate decisive factor was the political landscape, which reminds us of the inherently political nature of national‐level lawmaking, further supported by the erosion of tripartite lawmaking.