Elina Kestilä-Kekkonen

Representation of the Work-related Immigration Issue: Positions of the Finnish Electorate and MP Candidates in the 2003 Parliamentary Elections

Deriving from the general theories of representation, as well as from the economic interest thesis on the issue of immigration, the paper examines the opinion congruence on the work-related immigration issue between voters, non-voters, elected MP candidates and non-elected MP candidates in the Finnish parliamentary elections of 2003. The study is based on the pooled data (N = 2,712) from the Finnish National Election Study 2003 and the Candidate Selection Machine 2003. The results show that the four groups have significant attitudinal differences, and that the more positive attitudes of candidates cannot be explained by group differences in social status. The opinion representation would thus not have worked better even if the electorate had voted based on social resemblance.

Measuring the Extent of Party Institutionalisation: The Case of a Populist Entrepreneur Party

The consensus among Finnish commentators is that the True Finn Party (PS), which grew dramatically to become the second largest electoral party in 2011, is an institutionalised party – that is, it is ‘here to stay’. Although led for virtually the whole of its 19-year existence by Timo Soini, the PS, unlike say Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and Popolo Della Libertà, is not viewed as a ‘personal party’ in which its expected lifespan is dependent on the political lifespan of its founder-leader. But how institutionalised really is it and when can a party be said to be institutionalised? Building on the syndrome of properties widely ascribed to the process in the literature, the theoretical contribution of this article is to provide a composite definition and the first systematic operationalisation of the notion of party institutionalisation. The empirical section measures the extent of party institutionalisation using the populist-entrepreneur True Finn Party as a test case whilst the concluding discussion considers the wider question of the conceptual utility of institutionalisation for the analysis of party change.

Party, leader or candidate? dissecting the right-wing populist vote in Finland

What populist right parties offer (the supply side) should be examined in relation to the preferences of the populist right electorate (the demand side). This article examines how the supply and demand in the electoral market are met by assessing the relative importance of party, party leader, and district-level candidate for the right-wing populist vote. The study is set in an electoral system, which uses preferential voting for candidates in multi-member districts, namely Finland, where all three objects of vote choice may matter. We analyse post-election survey data for the 2011 parliamentary election in which the right-wing populist True Finns party gained almost one fifth of the national vote. The results show that being guided by the characteristics of the party leader is a much stronger predictor the of the True Finns vote than being affected by party or district-level candidate characteristics.

Dark Side of Party Identification? An Empirical Study of Political Trust among Radical Right‐Wing Voters

Abstract Scholars argue that party identification is a predictor of support for the political system. In this study we explore the relationship between party identification and political trust on the far right of the political spectrum, i.e. among radical right‐wing voters known to be anti‐elitist and suspicious about political institutions and actors. Political trust is measured as trust in parliament and trust in politicians. Our empirical analyses concentrate on Austria, Denmark and Norway, where radical right parties have attracted widespread public support. Individual‐level data from the European Social Survey (2002/2003) are analysed by applying ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression analysis. Unlike the general theory of political trust would lead us to argue, the analysis shows overall that party identification of radical right‐wing voters does not necessarily increase their trust in parliament and politicians. The results suggest that party identification is negatively related to political trust among radical right‐wing voters in Norway while the results are more ambiguous in Denmark and Austria.

Political Trust, Individual-level Characteristics and Institutional Performance: Evidence from Finland, 2004–13

Several scholars agree that low political trust has fundamental negative implications for society at large. This study tests the power of institutional performance theory in explaining the differences between individuals in political trust (cross-sectional) and fluctuations of political trust over time (longitudinal). Indeed, the dominant scholarly debate has concerned whether political trust is stable and dependent of endogenous factors such as political socialization and social trust, or whether it is exogenous (i.e., in constant fluctuation due to later experiences with institutions and the outputs they produce). In terms of cross-sectional differences, the aim is to assess the relative impact institutional performance on political trust of a citizen. As regards the longitudinal approach, political trust varies over time and from an explanatory perspective it is important also to understand how well the institutional performance theory predicts over-time variation of political trust. The study employs repeated European Social Survey data for Finland between 2004 and 2013. The results show, first and foremost, the strong impact of evaluations of institutional performance on political trust: satisfaction with government and economy explains differences both between individuals and over time. Social trust and welfare state performance are also strong predictors, but they explain differences only at the individual level and do not predict over-time variations.