摘要
芬蘭爲人口僅有五百多萬的歐洲邊疆之國，近年來以其科技產業、競爭力以及教育成就聞名國際，也成爲國人關注的焦點。然而，較少爲國人所熟知的是，其多元文化主義的族群政治安排，使其與瑞士以及比利時同爲歐洲著名的雙語／多語國家。雙語／多語主義往往意味著一個國家同時存有兩個以上具競爭實力的語言族群，例如在比利時有比例相當的荷語與法語族群，而瑞士則存有德語、法語、義語三大族群，在亞洲也有華語、馬來語、印度語三語鼎立的新加坡，這些國家的族群政治安排實有取其權力平衡的意涵。不過，在芬蘭我們卻看見人口比例懸殊，但卻仍順利維持雙語主義運作的情形。在芬蘭，人口僅佔不到6%的瑞典語族群，竟可讓瑞典語爭得在芬蘭憲法裡國家語言的地位，而人口超過90%的芬蘭語族群也欣然同意這項憲政安排。這樣的制度安排當然有其歷史背景因素，整個發展過程也歷經了若干的政治鬥爭，但今日卻是紮紮實實地落實在芬蘭社會。反觀有所謂四大族群的台灣，無論是人口佔少數的原住民族，還是佔人口主流的客家族群與鶴佬族群，其母語迄今仍無法取得官方語言的地位。究竟一個國家是要有單一的國語，還是應該容許雙語／多語的存在？何者是較好的制度安排？雖然不同的國家有不同的考量，但雙語／多語的安排似乎並不影響這些國家的競爭力與國家認同，尤其芬蘭更爲今日許多國人認爲足以爲台灣效法的對象。
並列摘要
Along with Belgium and Switzerland, Finland is one of the three constitutionally bi-or multi-lingual countries in Europe. Bilingualism or multilingualism generally indicates the institutionalization of power-sharing between or among rival ethnic groups with relatively even powers, such as that of Flemish and French-speakers in Belgium. However, the case of Finland points to a different story of ethnic politics. Ethnic Finns predominantly constitute over 90% of the population, and people of Swedish descent only make up less than 6%. Nonetheless, Swedish has been Finland’s national language along with Finnish since 1919. The main purpose of this essay is to explore how a country with uneven proportion of ethnic groups successfully institutionalized bilingualism. Specifically, two themes are included: (1) How did the Swedes minority struggle to make their mother tongue, Swedish, an official language? (2) Why were the Finns majority willing to accept bilingualism instead of sticking to a single national language?