Social and ideological representativeness: A comparison of political party members and supporters in Finland after the realignment of major parties

Abstract

This study provides a new frame of reference for understanding intraparty dynamics by analyzing party members’ representativeness with respect to party supporters regarding socioeconomic status and the ideological spectrum in a multiparty system, namely that of Finland. The analysis is based on a unique member-based survey of Finland’s six major political parties ( N = 12,427), which is combined with supporter data derived from a nationally representative survey ( N = 1648). The clearest difference was found between supporters’ and members’ social status as members were generally in clearly higher social positions. However, there is a wider gap between parties when comparing supporters and members in terms of social status. Findings show that political opinions on income equality are still a key difference between traditional mass parties at the different levels of party strata, while incongruence within parties is relatively low. In contrast to the traditional parties, the newer parties, namely the Finns and the Greens, are ideologically close to their supporters in terms of attitudes concerning immigration and environment. Together, these findings provide an interesting landscape of the last decade’s changes in the Finnish political spectrum and contribute to the ongoing discussion on the changing forms of political parties.

Cybercrime Victimization and Problematic Social Media Use: Findings from a Nationally Representative Panel Study

“…In Finland, the main division has been drawn between the supporters of the populist right-wing party, the Finns, and the supporters of the Green League and the Left Alliance (Koiranen et al, 2020). However, it is noteworthy that Finland has a multiparty system based on socioeconomic cleavages represented by traditional parties, such as the Social Democratic Party of Finland, the National Coalition Party, and the Center Party (Koivula et al, 2020). Indeed, previous research has shown that there is relatively little affective polarization in Finland (Wagner, 2021).…”

Ideological motives, digital divides, and political polarization: How do political party preference and values correspond with the political use of social media?

“…As these new identity parties, the FP and the GL, have diverged from the traditional left-right spectrum, the Left Alliance (LA) has also actively developed from a traditional working-class party into a so-called new left party. Nowadays the LA is-alongside with the GL-firmly based on shared post-materialist values and opinions concerning, for example, equality, tolerance, and minority rights, especially in terms of gender, ethnicity, and sexuality (Koivula et al, 2019;Lönnqvist et al 2019). This transformation can also be detected in the changed background of the party's members and supporters: the LA's new members and supporters in this decade are more likely to be highly educated, young, and female (Keipi et al, 2017).…”

Polarization in the wake of the European refugee crisis – A longitudinal study of the Finnish political elite’s attitudes towards refugees and the environment

“…Regarding both refugee attitudes and attitudes towards the environment, the Finns Party and the Greens are polar opposites (Koivula, Koiranen, Saarinen, & Keipi, 2019). Almost 90% of the members of the Finns Party view refugees as an important societal risk, whereas above 60% of Green League members do not view refugees as an important risk.…”