Policy, Politics and Path Dependency: Sport Development in Australia and Finland

Sport development as a public policy priority has historically been on the periphery of governments’ political agendas. This is not the case in the early twenty-first century however. Over the past decade, in nations as diverse as Canada, China, Germany, Norway, Poland, Singapore and the United Kingdom, public policies for sport development-related activity have increased in salience. This article reviews and analyses national sport development policy (across the mass-elite sport spectrum) in Australia and Finland; two countries with quite distinct political, cultural and sporting backgrounds. The analysis explores whether a path dependency approach can help towards a better understanding of sport development activity in each country. Our conclusions suggest that Australia (elite sport) and Finland (Sport for All) have remained on quite specific sport development pathways with little deviation, despite a few programs created in Australia to increase the levels of sport participation for targeted groups such as school children, women and indigenous Australians.