ABSTRACT
While turnout is relatively high in Finland in international comparison, there has been a sharp decline during 1980–1990s, and a difference especially to other Nordic countries is striking. In this chapter, we discuss the factors associated with low turnout levels in Finnish elections. We first present descriptive trends in turnout in parliamentary elections by gender, age and education. Drawing from previous literature, we then identify institutional characteristics, most noteworthy effective electoral threshold, a high number of parties, mandatory preferential voting, intra-party competition and nontransparent government coalition options that make voting a cognitively demanding exercise with high level of uncertainty. At the individual level, we focus on predispositions and resources including family background, social mobility and health that have proven to be important correlates of voting. The chapter concludes by addressing the means to enhance inclusiveness, convenience and information accessibility in voting.
