Mid Sweden University

This study addresses a research gap in the scholarship on elite–voter linkages by focusing on ideological issue congruence between party elites and voters on a liberal–illiberal scale. Prior research has predominantly focused on congruence with respect to issue-specific positioning, whereas comparatively limited scholarly attention has been devoted to the alignment of party elites and voters within the broader ideological contest between liberal and illiberal societal visions. We therefore asked two questions: (1) how congruent are party elites and voters in their issue positions when placed on a liberal–illiberal scale, and (2) which factors explain support for illiberal issue positions among party elites and voters? To answer these questions, we use parallel elite and voter surveys from the 2023 Finnish parliamentary elections. The results demonstrate that party elites occupy more extreme positions than their supporters, with liberal elites being more liberal and illiberal elites being more illiberal. Political experience is linked to stronger liberal orientations, highlighting the socializing effect of democratic participation, while democratic dissatisfaction consistently predicts stronger support for illiberal issue positions. By introducing an empirical measure of support for illiberal issue positions and analytically distinguishing between liberal and illiberal party elites, the study contributes to the theory-building of elite–voter congruence in contemporary liberal democracies.

Demokraattinen hallinto tarvitsee demokratian kannattajia. Viimeisen vuosikymmenen aikana tehdyissä tutkimuksissa on kuitenkin havaittu kansalaisten kasvavaa tyytymättömyyttä demokratiaa kohtaan (ks. Armingeon & Guthmann, 2014; Dahlberg et al., 2015; Kriesi, 2020), minkä seurauksena monet ovat alkaneet suhtautua myönteisemmin demokratialle vaihtoehtoisiin hallintomuotoihin (Foa & Mounk, 2016). Tämä on herättänyt huolta demokratian tulevaisuudesta ja lisännyt keskustelua siitä, miten demokratia voidaan pelastaa. Ilman kansalaisten tukea demokratia hallintomuotona korvautuu ennemmin tai myöhemmin muilla järjestelmillä (ks. esim. Easton, 1965; Putnam, 1973). Asenteet demokratiaa kohtaan kuitenkin vaihtelevat eri yksilötasoisten ja ympäristötekijöiden mukaan, ja niitä pidetäänkin vahvasti maakohtaisista tekijöistä riippuvaisina (Canache et al., 2001). Yleisesti kansalaisten tyytyväisyys demokratiaan ja heidän tukensa demokratialle hallintomuotona ovat länsimaissa edelleen korkealla tasolla (Martini & Quaranta, 2020). Suomessa kansalaisten tuki demokratialle on eurooppalaisessa vertailussa pysynyt korkealla, ja se on jopa kasvanut viime vuosikymme-ninä (Rapeli & Koskimaa, 2020; Rapeli & Strandberg, 2024; Saikkonen, 2023).Tutkimme tässä luvussa kansanedustajaehdokkaiden demokratiaasenteita. Tarkastelemme ehdokkaita ”poliittisena eliittinä”, jonka suhtautuminen demokratiaan määrittää sen tulevaisuutta enemmän kuin rivikansalaisten suhtautuminen (Higley & Burton, 2006; Häfner et al., 2025; Norris, 2017). Taustalla on ajatus, että ilman eliitin tukea demokraattiset instituutiot ja käytännöt eivät säily pitkällä aikavälillä, vaikka kansalaisten tuki säilyisi vahvana.  

Multiple-mandate holding (MMH), i.e. the simultaneous exercise ofat least two directly elected political functions, is a widespread butcontroversial political practice. Theoretically it can be argued toconstitute a valuable personal vote earning attribute (PVEA)among candidates due to its’ combination of the incumbencyand local background traits, but previous scholarship has alsoshown that citizens tend to be quite critical towards it. However,whether and how the practice of MMH affects voter preferenceshas not been previously empirically explored. The purpose of thisstudy is thus to contribute to this line of research by exploringthe potential causal impact of the practice of MMH, making avaluable empirical contribution to scholarships of voterpreferences and candidate traits. We examine this question byutilising a conjoint survey experiment carried out in 2023 inFinland, a country that recently (in 2022) established a newregional government tier, thereby enabling the possibility forpoliticians of being simultaneously elected at three differentinstitutional levels. The results of the study confirm that MMH asa candidate trait has the potential to be disadvantageous forindividual candidates during elections.

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.

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.