Mid Sweden University

Demand-side studies of populism, adapting a citizen perspective, have grown exponentially during the last decade as a result of a growing political and academic concern over the potential effects of populism on the political system. Nevertheless, how populist attitudes at the citizen level are related to actual proposals for system-change is a surprisingly neglected research topic. One such proposal concerns the future of multiple-mandate-holding (MMH), i.e. the simultaneous exercise of at least two directly elected political functions, a controversial practice in many parts of Europe. By utilizing cross-sectional panel data gathered in Finland in 2022– 2023, a country characterized by extensive MMH among Members of Parliament, this study seeks to explore whether and how populist attitudes are related to the idea of representational pluralism in the political system, defined as the level of diversity among directly elected political representatives active within the political system. Using statistical analyses, we confirm our hypothesis that stronger populist attitudes are clearly associated with weaker support for MMH in general and stronger support for limiting the scope of MMH specifically. Our findings contribute to the theory-building of demand-side populism by showing that populist attitudes are also associated with the idea of representational pluralism

Members of a minority population are expected to evaluate political authorities through a different spectrum than majority members. Still, only a few studies have explored the role of local conditions as determinants for political attitudes among a linguistic minority population. This study focuses on the role of linguistic homogeneity, local economic conditions and community size as determinants for corruption perceptions and political trust at the individual level among members of a linguistic minority population: the Swedish-speaking Finns. Moreover, this study differs empirically between evaluations of the local and national authorities. Combining data from a panel survey collected by Barometern (2019-21) with varying contextual-level factors in a multilevel model, we show that evaluations of local authorities are related to local contextual factors, in particular municipal unemployment rates and median incomes, while national evaluations are largely unrelated to local conditions. In contrast to theoretical expectations for an in-group bias among minority members, however, we find no effect for linguistic homogeneity on corruption perceptions and political trust after controlling for economic conditions. The results make an important contribution to our understanding about the role of local conditions for political attitudes among a well-assimilated minority population.

This chapter discusses the association between political trust and political self-efficacy in Finland. Finland has among the highest levels of political trust in the world, but simultaneously the levels of political self-efficacy are comparatively on a much weaker level. As previous research has shown higher political trust and higher political self-efficacy to be associated at the individual level, this is somewhat unexpected. The findings in this chapter show that in the Finnish context a higher political self-efficacy, indeed, predicts lower political trust, adding support to the notion of well-informed citizens withdrawing their trust if they feel that the system is not acting according to their normative expectations. This chapter ends with a discussion about what the findings imply for the status of Finnish democracy, concluding that the findings should not necessarily be seen only in a negative light.

Multiple-mandate holding, i.e., the holding of more than one directly elected mandate simultaneously on different government tiers, is a controversial practice with potential consequences on political trust. The research purpose of this study is thus to contribute to this line of research by exploring how the extent of this practice at the local level reflects on the opinions of ordinary citizens and their confidence in local government. The aim of this paper is therefore to examine this question utilising a vignette survey experiment carried out in Finland. The findings presented contribute to shining a light on the potential consequences of this practice for trust in the local government by exposing one way in which negative evaluations of politicians are formed.

If not Thunberg, perhaps Trump? A study about the relationship between skepticism towards society and attitudes towards global political symbols This article concerns how publics relate to global political actors, including: Joe Biden, Greta Thunberg, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. In an increasingly globalized and digitized era, the influence of political actors increasingly transcends national boundaries, turning them into global celebrities and in this case also global political symbols. In order to explore the growing importance of global political symbols for political behaviour, this article seeks to explore the association between opinions towards several global political symbols, broadly representing either the establishment or the anti-establishment, and attitudes towards the media, politics, science, global warming and the Covid-19-pandemic. Using survey data collected in Finland 2021, the results broadly show that holding positive opinions about establishment symbols are positively associated with holding mainstream opinions, while a similar relationship is found between anti-establishment symbols and populist attitudes. The findings add to the literature about the attitudinal foundations of emerging global political mass movements.

idigare forskning har påvisat att medborgare tenderar att ha en kritisk hållning gentemot fenomenet mandatackumulering, en process varvid politiker förvärvar parallella direkt folkvalda politiska mandat på fler än en institutionell nivå. I Finland har politikernas omfattande mandatackumulering skapat debatt och Finland står även ut i Europa när det kommer till den faktiska omfattningen av mandatackumulering. Fördelarna kontra nackdelarna med mandatackumulering ur ett systemperspektiv har diskuterats i tidigare studier, men en stor kunskapslucka existerar fortfarande angående medborgarnas inställning till denna praxis och vilka faktorer på individnivå som kan förklara inställningen i frågan. Detta gäller speciellt inom en nationell kontext med omfattande mandatackumulering. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att bidra till att fylla denna empiriska lucka. För att undersöka dessa samband använder vi oss av paneldata insamlat under perioden 2022–2023 från en finländsk medborgarpanel som analyseras med hjälp av statistiska metoder. Resultaten visar på ett tydligt samband mellan hur medborgare förhåller sig till det politiska systemet och synen på mandatackumulering medan ett samband mellan politisk sofistikation och synen på mandatackumulering inte kan bekräftas.

Previous research has shown that citizens in general tends to express a negative disposition towards the phenomenon of multiple-mandate holding, i.e., a process where politicians collect overlapping political mandates on more than one institutional level. This phenomenon has in Finland also contributed to a public debate, as the extent of multiple-mandate holding in Finland stands out in a comparative European perspective. The potential costs and benefits from a political system perspective have been extensively discussed by previous research, although the literature is still missing more explanatory studies from a citizen perspective focusing on explaining individual-level variation in attitudes towards multiple-mandate holding. This especially within a national context characterized by extensive multiple-mandate holding among politicians. The purpose of this study is therefore to make an empirical contribution to fill that lacuna. In order to explore this phenomenon, we use survey data collected from a Finnish citizen panel during 2022–2023 which is analysed using suitable statistical analyses. The results show that there is a clear association between how citizens relate to the workings of the political system, and attitudes towards multiple-mandate holding, while we were unable to confirm an expected association between individual-level political sophistication and attitudes towards multiple-mandate holding.

Local consultative referendums are a widely used democratic innovation. Nevertheless, there is still limited knowledge about the local effects following a referendum, especially in terms of how the public reactions varies given if a citizen has been on the winning or on the losing side of the referendum. The purpose with this study is therefore to add to this line of research by assessing how a local referendum about a municipal merger affects external political efficacy and political trust within a local community. By analysing two cross-sectional datasets collected in a bilingual Finnish municipality before a merger referendum, in 2018 (N = 6,686), and after the referendum, in 2020 (N = 3,133), as a pseudo-experiment of effects of a municipal merger, we show that the aggregated levels of external political efficacy and political trust have increased and vary based on being on the winning or losing side of the referendum.

The practice of multiple‐mandate holding is widespread across Europe. Critics argue that this practice contributes to a concentration of political power, a higher risk for conflicts of interest and damage to the public image of political actors. Advocates  meanwhile  claim  that  it  provides  clear  benefits,  such  as  local embeddedness of the national or regional political decision‐making and a greater degree of professionalisation in politics. However, little is known about how political actors themselves look upon this practice. This especially in a context like Finland, where this practice is said to be embedded in the political culture and where another institutional level has recently been implemented, making it possible for political actors to simultaneously hold political mandates at the local‐, regional‐and national levels. This paper examines attitudes towards multiple‐mandate holding among local political decision‐makers using unique survey data gathered through a new online panel. The results suggest that councillors from a populist radical right party and those who perceive corruption and partial treatment as more common were the most negatively disposed towards this practice, while councillors from the traditionally strongest rural party were the most in favour.

Consultative referendums are becoming more widely used as a way of responding to rising public discontent with the workings of representative democracy. Consequently, consultative referendums have become an integral part of democratic decision-making processes across the world. However, how the population reacts to the referendum outcome is expected to differ among the population as referendums, by design, divides the participants into winners and losers. In turn, creating a winner-loser gap with potentially polarizing societal consequences. This study therefore seeks to explore how this winner-loser gap is associated with several types of referendum attitudes following the outcome of a local referendum. Using survey data (N = 3113) gathered after a high stakes local referendum in Finland, the more explicit research purpose is therefore to analyze how individual-level opinions about referendums, turnout thresholds and margin of victory thresholds are related to the winner-loser gap. Additionally, we also control for whether these associations are moderated by external efficacy and political trust. The results clearly imply that the winner-loser gap have consequences for several types of referendum attitudes, contributing to scholarship about the effects derived from the winner-loser gap.

Den ryska invasionen av Ukraina i februari 2022 har lyft upp utrikes- och säkerhetspolitik som ännu viktigare politiska frågor än tidigare. Den har även bidragittill att aktualisera frågor kring Sveriges relation till övriga Europa generellt och tillden Europeiska unionen (EU) specifikt. Sverige har varit medlem i EU i nästan tredecennier och under denna tidsperiod har opinionen gått från att vara högst deladifråga om EU-medlemskapet till att under senare år kunna beskrivas som mer EUpositiv. Syftet med detta kapitel är att undersöka om – och i så fall hur – den svenskaEU-opinionen har påverkats av kriget i Ukraina. I kapitlet analyserar vi förändringeni EU-opinionen baserat på data från de nationella SOM-undersökningarna 2021och 2022, det vill säga tiden innan och efter den ryska invasionen. Därtill kommervi även se närmare på åsiktsförändringar inom olika grupper, samt placera in densvenska EU-opinionen i en europeisk kontext och se hur förändringen i Sverige skiljersig från övriga medlemsländer.