ABSTRACT
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, it analyses how voters act and react in an electoral democracy characterized by a high degree of competition between and within parties, yet a democracy in which the possibility for voters to hold governments accountable for their actions is weak, leading to interesting tensions within the system and influences on how voters relate to and engage in politics. This book not only describes these patterns but also provides the reader with thorough explanations and interpretations from a team of expert contributors.
This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Finnish politics, Nordic/Scandinavian politics and studies, political behaviour, electoral studies, public opinion and more broadly to comparative politics and democracy.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution‑Non Commercial‑No Derivatives (CC‑BY‑NC‑ND) 4.0 license.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|72 pages
The state of democracy
chapter 4|15 pages
In Safe Elections, Democracy Wins
chapter 6|15 pages
Act Your Age! Generational Differences in Political Participation in Finland 2007–2019
part 2|118 pages
Elections, parties and candidates
chapter 12|17 pages
How to Find a Needle in a Haystack
chapter 13|17 pages
What makes a Successful Candidate in the Finnish Open-list Proportional Electoral System?
part 3|56 pages
Campaigning