1st Edition

Political Behaviour in Contemporary Finland Studies of Voting and Campaigning in a Candidate-Oriented Political System

Edited By Åsa von Schoultz, Kim Strandberg Copyright 2024
294 Pages 61 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

294 Pages 61 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This book presents a comprehensive overview of Finnish electoral democracy, expertly detailing both its typical representation of a stable European party democracy and its particularities such as a personalized electoral system, a fragmented party system with tradition of grand government coalitions and its sensitive geopolitical location. Using the Finnish National Election Study as a basis,... Read more

1. An introduction to the Finnish electoral context

Åsa von Schoultz and Kim Strandberg

Part 1: The state of democracy

2. What kind of democracy do the people want?

Lauri Rapeli and Kim Strandberg

3. Finland: A Country of High Political Trust and Weak Political Self-efficacy

Maria Bäck, Thomas Karv and Elina Kestilä-Kekkonen

4. In safe elections, democracy wins: perceptions of electoral harassment among candidates and voters 

Veikko Isotalo and Hanna Wass

5. Foiled at every turn? Understanding turnout in Finland

Theodora Helimäki and Hanna Wass

6. Act Your Age! Generational Differences in Political Participation in Finland 2007–2019

Janette Huttunen and Henrik Serup Christensen

Part 2: Elections, parties and candidates

7. The Social Basis of the Vote: Class Voting in Finland

Aino Tiihonen and Peter Söderlund

8. Value dimensions and party choice in Finland

Kimmo Grönlund and Peter Söderlund

9. Party identification 

Sami Borg and Heikki Paloheimo

10. Friends and foes: Affective polarization among Finnish voters

Arto Kekkonen, Daniel Kawecki and Staffan Himmelroos

11. Party and candidate as objects of electoral choice

Peter Söderlund

12. How to find a needle in a haystack: Which candidate characteristics matter for voters’ choice of candidate?

Theodora Helimäki and Åsa von Schoultz

13. What makes a successful candidate in the Finnish open-list proportional electoral system?

Veikko Isotalo and Åsa von Schoultz

Part 3: Campaigning

14. Generational Patterns in Voters’ Use of the Internet and Social Media in Finnish Parliamentary Elections 2003–2019

Tom Carlson and Kim Strandberg

15. Candidates and campaigning

Peter Söderlund

16. Individualized Campaigning in the Finnish Open-List System

Mikko Mattila

17. Conclusions

Kim Strandberg and Åsa von Schoultz

Biography

Åsa von Schoultz is Professor of Political Science at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and the Director of the Finnish National Election Study.

Kim Strandberg is Professor of Political Science and Political Communication at Åbo Akademi University, Finland.