Party, Candidate, or Both? Examining Ethnic Voting among Swedish-Speaking Finns

• In Event: The Political Preferences of Immigrants and Foreigners

Abstract

There are two essential definitions of ethnic voting, either it can be understood as a vote for an ethnic party or as a vote for co-ethnic candidate in a non-ethnic (or multi-ethnic) party. In a political system with both an established ethnic minority party and an electoral system (OLPR) where voters must choose a candidate from a party list the ethno-linguistic group of Swedish-speaking Finns can exercise both types of ethnic voting. They can vote for the ethnic minority party The Swedish Peoples party (SFP) or they can chose to vote for a co-ethnic candidate from any other Finnish party.

We know that ethnic voting is widespread among the ethnic minority of Swedish-speaking Finns. Two-thirds of the Swedish speakers in Finland vote for SFP (the ethnic minority party) and a majority of those voting for other parties place their vote on a co-ethnic candidate. However, the determinants of ethnic voting among the Swedish-speaking Finns are less known. Previous scholarship suggests co-ethnicity and the championing of ethnic causes are important determinants of ethnic voting, but these do not explain whether the vote is for a candidate or party. Using conjoint analysis we examine to what extent different relevant ethnic attributes and their combinations (name, linguistic identity, ethnic party) determine how Swedish-speaking Finns choose a candidate. We target a representative sample of the Swedish-speaking population in Finland (n=2000) using the randomly recruited Barometer online panel.

The survey will be conducted in the spring of 2024 and framed as a poll for the upcoming European Parliament elections in May 2024. The benefit of using the European Parliament elections rather than another election as the basis for examining candidate preferences is that Finland constitutes a single electoral district for this election. This allows the respondents to reflect on the full diversity of candidates and parties in the Finnish political system, not only those who would be likely to succeed within a more regional context. Which should contribute to greater generalizability of the findings.

Author

• Staffan Himmelroos