Mid Sweden University

Do (many) voters like ranking? We address this question through an experimental study performed in four countries: Austria, England, Ireland and Sweden. Respondents were invited to participate in three successive elections. They were randomly assigned to one of four possiblevoting scenariosand asked to vote. The voting scenarios differed in terms of party supply (three or five parties) and the type of vote choice (vote for one party only or possibility of ranking all parties). After they had voted, respondents were asked about their satisfaction with the party supply and the voting system (using a scale from 0 "not at all satisfied" to 10 "very much satisfied"). We find little difference in overall satisfaction between those elections where people could rank order the parties and those where they could not.

This study compares three indexes of democracy, the EIU, Freedom House, and Polity IV, and their classifications and ratings of the level of democracy in 157 countries in 2010. The comparison is based on dichotomous, trichotomous, and continuous measures of democracy. The findings show that the three indexes have discrepancies in all comparisons applied in this study. As a consequence, researchers and others who use democracy indexes should be aware that the indexes reach different conclusions concerning their classifications and ratings of democracy. Scholars also should be aware that the indexes favor and disfavor different countries and regions of the world in their ratings of democracy.

The main contribution of this study is to identify democracies in the world that are at risk of

becoming non-democracies. It is hypothesized that if democracies have a low level of

legitimacy and have low effectiveness, they are at risk of becoming non-democratic

regimes. These types of democracies are called weak democracies. Of the seven

democracies that are identified as weak democracies between 2000 and 2010, the weakest of

them, Mali, has already fallen. However, looking at the results of this study, it is not

surprising that the democratic regime in Mali fell. The other six countries that are identified

as weak democracies are Benin, Mongolia, Lesotho, El Salvador, Belize, and Mexico. The

democratic regimes in these six weak democracies should be observed in more detail in the

future to predict whether they are close to falling and losing their democratic institutions, or

whether they will recover and no longer be weak democracies.

It has been argued that economic development and democracy create new opportunities and resources for women to access political power, which should increase gender equality in politics. However, empirical evidence from previous research that supports this argument is mixed. The contribution of this study is to expand the research on gender equality in politics through an in-depth examination of the effect of development and democracy on gender equality in cabinets. This has been completed through separate analyses that include most of the countries in the world across three levels of development (least-developed, developing, and developed) and across different types of political regimes (democracies, royal dictatorships, military dictatorships, and civilian dictatorships). The results demonstrate that economic development and democracy only affect gender equality in cabinets positively in a few environments. Accordingly, the context is important and there seem to be thresholds before development and democracy have any effect. Development has a positive effect in developed countries and in democracies, but it has a negative effect in dictatorships, and the negative effect is strongest in military dictatorships. The level of democracy has a positive effect mainly in dictatorships, and the strongest effect is in civilian dictatorships. The article demonstrates the importance of dividing samples into subsets to increase understanding of what affects women's representation in cabinets in different environments, and I ask scholars to subset samples and run separate analyses more often in comparative studies. Copyright © 2015 Cambridge University Press.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether citizens are more likely to vote in a political system that uses a proportional electoral system if the election is close. The results show that citizens who live in Swedish municipalities in which the competition between the two leading parties is close are more likely to vote. However, the results also show that the vote gap between the two major traditional blocs, the left and the right, is not important for citizens when they are considering whether or not to vote in municipal elections. In the study, a theoretical argument has been formulated which suggests that voters are confused and discouraged when there are many aspects to consider regarding the form of an upcoming coalition government. Accordingly, potential voters see the issue of how the coalition will be formed as too complex, and therefore the vote gap between the two blocs is not an issue that is prioritised by potential voters.

This article investigates whether two different measures of democracy generate the same empirical results. The Freedom House and Polity IV measures are used as the dependent variables. The result shows that statistical significance and explanatory power for different independent variables differ greatly, depending on which democracy index is used as the dependent variable. The results also indicate that Freedom House and Polity IV rate many countries’ levels of democracy differently. It is worrying and problematic for comparative studies of democracy that empirical results differ so much according to which measure of democracy is used.

This case is an example of using quantitative research on democracies, and it is based on my PhD study in political science. In the study, I used a comparative method, through a large-n, outcome-centric research design, to examine which factors affect the varying levels of the quality of democracy in the stable democracies around the world. This case study illustrates how a researcher can develop their research agenda from identifying the research subject to formulating the research question for the study. In the case, I describe different research steps that were used in my PhD study, such as how the research design was developed, how the operationalization of the concept quality of democracy was performed, how the theoretical model for explaining the variation in the quality of democracy was developed, and how the empirical analyses by using statistical analysis were performed. During the research journey, there were also several methodological challenges to handle, and in this case study, I also describe and comment on how I handled these challenges. As a pedagogical tool, the aim of this case is to be helpful in improving future research that uses a large-n research design and analyzes the data using statistical analysis.

The main purpose of this study is to examine political competition on the local level inSweden and to empirically test two theories of political competition, namely whetherthe size of the unit affects the variation in political competition and whether socioeconomicstandards affect the variation in political competition. The findings supportthe suggested causal mechanism between socioeconomic standards and competition.Accordingly, units with higher socioeconomic standards have a higher level of politicalcompetition. Some empirical findings also support the suggested causal mechanismbetween the size of the units and the political competition. The findings show thatpopulation size is a robust determinant of competition and that a larger populationsize affects competition positively. The findings show also that area size is a relativelyrobust determinant of competition and that area size has a negative effect on competition.However the negative effect is contrary to the expectations.

This study deals with the quality of democracy, and its purpose is to examine which factors affect the varying levels of the quality of democracy in the stable democracies in the world. The research question posited in the study is: what explains the varying levels of the quality of democracy in the democratic countries in the world, and do political institutions matter? Theoretically, the quality of democracy is distinguished from other similar concepts employed in comparative politics, and what the quality of democracy stands for is clarified. The quality of democracy is defined in this study as: the level of legitimacy in a democratic system with respect to democratic norms such as political participation, political competition, political equality, and rule of law. In total, four dimensions of the quality of democracy are included that are considered to be very important dimensions of the quality of democracy. These dimensions are political participation, political competition, political equality, and the rule of law. To explain the variation in the quality of democracy, an explanatory model has been developed. The explanatory model consists of five different groups of independent variables: political institutional variables, socioeconomic variables, cultural variables, historical variables, and physical variables. Methodologically, a large-n, outcome-centric research design is employed and statistical analysis is used to examine what effect the five groups of independent variables have on the four dimensions of the quality of democracy. Empirically, the results show that cultural variables and political institutional variables outperform socioeconomic, historical, and physical variables in relation to their effect on the quality of democracy. Consequently, cultural and political institutional variables are the two most important groups of variables when explaining the variation in the quality of democracy in the democratic countries in the world. In relation to the other groups of variables, historical variables are slightly more important than socioeconomic variables when explaining the variation in the quality of democracy. The physical variables constitute the group of variables that has the least importance out of the five groups of variables when explaining the variation in the quality of democracy. In summary, the findings from the study show that the best way of increasing the level of the quality of democracy may be to choose political institutions such as parliamentarism as the executive power system and a proportional system as the electoral system. To put this clearly, to increase the possibility of democratic countries achieving a high level of the quality of democracy they should avoid majority electoral systems and presidential or semipresidential executive systems.

The goal of this study is to examine to what extent gender quotas have contributedto recent increases in women’s representation in parliaments. The results show thatthe effect of quotas on women’s representation in parliaments increased over timeduring the first decade of the twenty-first century, and that in the mid and late partsof the decade quotas are an important determinant of women’s representation in parliaments.However, the results from this study demonstrate that several countries thatuse gender quotas still have low levels of female representation in parliaments, whichindicates that the designs of the quotas are important.

This study is about women's political participation in times of increased influence from radical right parties. The gender-representation gap in the Swedish radical right party, the Sweden Democrats, is examined. A reformulated contagion theory is tested using three hypotheses. To test the hypotheses, a large-N study of all of Sweden's municipalities is conducted. The results show that a large gender-representation gap exists in the Sweden Democrats party compared with that in the other main parties, and the gap has a negative effect on the total level of female representation in the municipal councils. However, the gap and the negative effect are decreasing over time in relation to the other main parties, which supports the hypotheses and the reformulated contagion theory.

In this study, I examine what characteristics affect early voting in Sweden, and a large-N study of all of Sweden’s 290 municipalities for the four most recent elections is conducted. The results show that the level of early voting is higher in municipalities where the average income is higher; where the level of older people is higher; where the level of the electorate born abroad is higher; in rural municipalities; and in municipalities where the number of early voting sites per one thousand eligible voters is higher. If the goal of the municipalities is to increase early voting, any policy recommendation that is based on the results of this study should ensure that there are numerous early voting sites in the municipalities and if there are not, the municipalities should consider increasing the number of early voting sites they provide. 

In this research note, I introduce a new concept for examining women's political representation. This concept deals with women's representation both in parliaments and governments. I name the new concept "women's representation in national politics." The empirical results of this study demonstrate that the independent variable region is the variable with the greatest explanatory power of the independent variables used in this study. The results show that Scandinavia has extraordinarily high levels of female representation in national politics. The results also show that three countries in Oceania-Nauru, Palau, and Tuvalu-do not have any female representation in national politics.

Citizens’ evaluation of how well the system works is central to the legitimacy of a democratic system. Elections and voting are crucial parts of the democratic system, and therefore, it is very important to evaluate voter satisfaction with the electoral process. In this study, we evaluate one aspect of the electoral process: the supply of parties on the ballot paper, and we use a direct measure of satisfaction with the party choices available on the ballot. We performed a survey experiment with a representative sample of citizens in four Western European democracies: Austria, England, Ireland and Sweden. The results point to a clear answer: voters are more satisfied if there are more parties to choose from. The findings also show that the positive effect is stronger among the higher educated. We also examined if it is the presence of an ideologically close option that really matters. The results show that respondents in every ideological position prefer more parties. This strongly suggests that it is the number of parties, as such that matters.

In this study the authors aim to add to the understanding of whether, and if so how, a change of electoral system affects factors such as voter turnout and the party system, and the authors' focus has been on changes that result in mixed electoral systems. They used three country cases (Japan, Italy, and New Zealand) to explore patterns in a before-and-after design. The findings suggest that a country cannot expect a significant effect on voter turnout if it decides to change its electoral system to a mixed system. Regarding party system fragmentation, the results show that the change of the electoral system in New Zealand from a plurality system to a mixed member proportional system had a clear and immediately positive effect on the party system. However, the results do not indicate that the changes of electoral systems in Japan and Italy have had any significant effect on the party system. 

In this study we examine complaints concerning electoral fraud and administrative inaccuracies in an old, stable democracy, namely Sweden. We include complaints about the Swedish parliamentary elections between 2010 and 2018. The aim is to examine why voters complain about elections with a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. The results indicate that elections in Sweden are broadly well run and that Sweden has a robust election system. However, the analysis of the complaints show that many of them relate to the handling of advance votes, and that several human errors (administrative inaccuracies) occurred in handling advance votes. The mishandling of advance votes can increase the risk of reducing citizens' confidence in the election process and, by extension, it can pose a risk of magnifying the perceived decline in the legitimacy of the democratic system.

In democracies, elections in which voters elect their leaders and hold them accountable are the most important part of the democratic process. This study is about the people who work on the frontline of democracy and who play a major role in elections, namely poll workers. Surprisingly little is known about how poll workers evaluate elections, and we provide a detailed analysis of poll workers' views of how elections work in Sweden. We do this by reporting and analysing the results from a survey conducted among poll workers in Sweden shortly after the 2022 election. The results show that although many types of polling station-related problems were rare, some problems occurred to a greater extent than we expected. It is also clear that many of the problems had a negative impact on the poll workers' evaluations of the quality of the voting process. 

According to partisan theory, variations in policy choices and outputs originate from the party composition of the government studied. In this study, we take a novel approach to address such assumptions by linking changes in municipal taxes with local government changes. We also add a baseline scenario in which we examine whether the composition of the local government affects tax levels. Drawing on a dataset that contains official Swedish statistics from 1994 to 2018, we find convincing support for the partisan effect. Tax levels are higher under left-wing rule, and more specifically, tax cuts particularly occur when left-wing governments are replaced by right-wing ones. These results do not vanish when controls are accounted for, while it can be particularly noticed that the condition of the municipal economy influences partisan ambitions. These findings thereby contradict prior theoretical assumptions that the local arena is free from ideological battles.

This study examines the potential link between descriptive and substantive representation. More precisely, we examine whether a higher level of political descriptive representation of women improves their substantive representation in terms of policy spending in areas that are known to be prioritized by women. We use data from a pooled sample of all of the 290 Swedish municipalities covering the years from 1994 to 2021. We make at least four contributions to the research field: we use multiple measures of (1) women’s political representation and (2) policy spending, and we also (3) test assumptions at the subnational level, where policy spending matters most, and (4) assess them over a longer period of time, stretching across almost three decades. In contrast to our expectations, the findings show that the descriptive representation of women has no influence on policy spending; instead, economic and demographical aspects dominate. 

In this article, we contribute to election administration research by studying poll workers in Sweden, and we examine their characteristics, training, and performance. We do this by using data from a unique poll workers survey conducted shortly after the 2022 general election in Sweden. The results demonstrate that a large proportion of the poll workers are older, a majority of them are female, and a majority have completed some kind of higher education. In addition, a majority have served before as poll workers. The results also show that poll workers’ characteristics affect their performance. Further, the results indicate that reading the Electoral Authority’s tutorial for poll workers has a positive effect on their performance. As a policy recommendation, we suggest that the Electoral Authority in Sweden should explore the possibility of changing the compulsory training to consist of more hands on training combined with lectures. 

In this study, we contribute to the research field concerning early voting by examining the rejection of early votes in the general election in Sweden in 2022. The results show that the rejection rate of early votes in Sweden is high, which is of course problematic because eligible voters who vote should not have their ballots rejected because of errors. Contrary to our theoretical expectations, we did not find any patterns in the level of rejected early votes among the municipalities. We also examine why early votes are rejected, and the findings demonstrate that errors of different kinds occur, though some are more common than others, for example, putting more than one ballot paper in a ballot envelope seems to be a common problem. Finally, we provide several recommendations for the Election Authority concerning how the level of rejection of early votes can be reduced in Sweden

Research on invalid voting has expanded over the past few years. Scholars largely agree on the most important determinants of invalid voting, foremost compulsory voting, quality of democracy, and ballot structure. However, disagreement prevails concerning several factors; more exactly, whether the effect is positive or negative. We examine determinants of invalid voting in the four most recent local elections in a single country, Sweden, all municipalities included. Applying a subnational research design allows us to control for several determinants that have been reported to be of significance in explaining varying levels of invalid voting, and, consequently, to examine factors with theoretically contradictory directions of effects. Two theoretical models of invalid voting are tested, an institutional and a societal model, each consisting of four variables. The latter explains considerably more of the variation in the dependent variable than the former. The most important determinant is education: higher levels of education among the population decrease the share of invalid votes. Concerning the institutional model, only district magnitude significantly affects the dependent variable, indicating that larger district magnitude depresses invalid voting. However, the effect disappears when societal variables are included, due to higher levels of education among the population in municipalities with high district magnitudes. Proportion of the electorate born abroad also significantly affects levels of invalid voting; higher proportions decrease invalid voting. We suggest that this is a consequence of political sophistication, interest, and being politically informed combined with who decides to vote and who decides to abstain amongst immigrants. 

When judging how ‘fair’ voting rules are, a fundamental criterion used by both scholars and politicians is their ability or inability to produce proportional results, that is, the extent parties’ seat distribution after the elections accurately reflects their vote shares. How about citizens? Do citizens care about how proportional the outcome is? Or do they judge the outcome solely on the basis of how well (or poorly) their party performed? Taking advantage of a uniquely designed survey experiment, this paper investigates the causal effect of proportionality on voter support for voting rules in four countries, namely Austria, England, Ireland and Sweden. The results show that proportionality drives support for the voting rules not above but beyond party performance. There is little cross‐country variation, which suggests that proportionality is appreciated in different contexts with little status quo bias. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the causal mechanisms linking electoral rules to voter support.