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Publications
Publications (62)
The role of social media influencers is often limited to the realm of consumer behaviour. However, recently, their role in the sphere of political communication has become a new topic of interest. In this article, we focus on how political influencer content is perceived by Finnish social media users and probe the interrelations between these perce...
This exploratory laboratory study analyzes emotional responses to two types of populist strategies on social media platforms. We focus on emotional responses to content expressing ordinariness (on Instagram) and victimhood (on TikTok), where the content creator is a right-wing populist leader who is unfavorably perceived by the respondents in the s...
Consultative referendums are becoming more widely used as a way of responding to rising public discontent with the workings of representative democracy. Consequently, consultative referendums have become an integral part of democratic decision-making processes across the world. However, how the population reacts to the referendum outcome is expecte...
Referendums constitute a political method for increasing the level of democratic legitimacy for a policy decision. An amendment in the Finnish constitution in 1990 enabled the organization of municipal level consultative referendums. The political power remains at the municipal council, irrespective of the referendum result, and municipal councils...
Previous studies suggest that information from delibera-tive mini-publics helps voters make informed and reflected judgements and act accordingly. Despite a growing body of literature, the causal mechanisms remain unclear. This study examines three causal mechanisms for affecting voting intentions in a referendum: 1) factual knowledge, 2) trusted i...
Local consultative referendums are a widely used democratic innovation. Nevertheless, there is still limited knowledge about the local effects following a referendum, especially in terms of how the public reactions varies given if a citizen has been on the winning or on the losing side of the referendum. The purpose with this study is therefore to...
This article studies citizens’ intertemporal opinions in the context of a proposed municipal merger in Finland in 2019. We ask how important citizens regard short- and long-term aspects of politics concerning the merger. Using a survey sent to a random sample of citizens (N = 320), we studied the impact of a Citizens’ Jury on developing intertempor...
The recent wave of electoral success for right-wing populists has coincided with an increase in political scandals as well as a new, neo-populist type, of scandals. Thus, it has been argued that the public might have become increasingly numb to scandals and that scandalous behaviour by populist politicians is often neglected as part of their 'typic...
With deliberative democracy becoming increasingly incorporated into political processes, the instances of citizens and politicians meeting in deliberation, so-called mixed deliberations, is increasing too. While these are important steps towards more deliberative systems, the mixed deliberation setting nonetheless introduces certain risks regarding...
In this article, we examine whether a deliberative mini-public can provide a trusted source of information in the context of a polarized referendum. Political polarization gives rise to selective distrust of those on the 'other side'. The Citizens' Jury on Referendum Options in Korsholm, Finland, was organized in conjunction with a polarized refere...
This article is based on three experiments in citizen deliberation. We ask whether disagreement at group level as well as at individual level influence participants’ experiences of deliberation. In all three experiments, participants discussed in small groups and answered surveys before and after deliberations. The experiments were population-based...
Municipal mergers are typically contentious and polarizing issues among both citizens and politicians. In deciding on these, municipal-level referendums are often commissioned by municipal councils. Referendums, though, are also per se polarizing processes that only exacerbate an already polarizing issue. Adding deliberation to referendum processes...
This article examines the use of a Citizens' Jury as a source of voter information in the context of a government-initiated (top-down) referendum. Several studies show the capacity of the Citizens' Initiative Review (CIR) to enhance voters' knowledge and capacity of judgement in ballot initiative processes. However, similar procedures have not been...
Svenskans ställning i Finland hänger på en välvillig inställning hos den stora finskspråkiga majoriteten. Hur långt sträcker sig denna välvillighet och vad förklarar att vissa ställer sig negativare till Finlands tvåspråkighet än andra? I denna antologi tar sig tolv forskare an detta relativt outforskade område.
Boken bygger på en omfattande datai...
Deliberative mini-publics are supposed to help those who do not take part make more enlightened judgements and act accordingly. Both theoretical and empirical studies suggest this to be the case, but the causal mechanisms remain unclear. This study examines three causal mechanisms for affecting voting behaviour in a referendum: 1) factual knowledge...
Municipal mergers are one of the most common reforms of jurisdiction size. While there are many studies of municipal mergers at the contextual level and some about how mergers affect opinions, studies of how individual citizens regard prospective mergers are still scarce. Thus, we study why citizens have different opinions on prospective mergers th...
This article reports on deliberation between citizens and politicians in a citizens’ forum about closing small schools and building a school center in a Finnish municipality. This real-world policy issue was highly contested at the time of the deliberation. The purpose of the study was to analyze both the magnitude of opinion changes and potential...
The text was originally published in the edited volume Euroflections. Leading academics on the European elections 2019, a free downloadable report with results, analyses and reflections on the election to the European Parliament 2019. More than 70 researchers from all over Europe participate in the project led by the editors Niklas Bolin, Kajsa Fal...
Helmikuussa 2019 Mustasaaressa järjestettiin kansanäänestysvaihtoehtoja arvioiva kansalaisraati ennen kunnallista, neuvoa-antavaa kansanäänestystä kuntaliitoksesta Vaasan kanssa. Kaksikielinen raati puntaroi kuntaliitoskysy-mystä neljän päivän ajan sekä laati julkilausuman, joka sisälsi aiheen kannalta tärkeimmät tosiasiat sekä tärkeimmät perustelu...
The aim of this article is to examine whether core personality traits are associated with opinions on and engagement in political participation of either participatory or deliberative nature. The Finish National Election Survey 2015 is used to explore the link between the Big Five personality dimensions and a wide array of political opinions and be...
The aim of this article is to examine whether core personality traits are associated with opinions on and engagement in political participation of either participatory or deliberative nature. The Finish National Election Survey 2015 is used to explore the link between the Big Five personality dimensions and a wide array of political opinions and be...
A frequent assumption in the socialpsychological literature is that when like-minded people discuss with each other, their opinions tend to become more extreme. This phenomenon is called group polarization. In groups lacking participants with different opinions, participants tend to confirm their groupidentity and the prevailing opinion, often with...
FULL TEXT available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0192512117692136
In today’s society, we can easily connect with people who share our ideas and interests. A problem with this development is that political reasoning in like-minded groups easily becomes lop-sided since there is little reason to critically examine information that...
Though reinforcement/mobilisation theories regarding the impact of the Internet on citizens’ political engagement are predictive, there are few longitudinal studies on how the profile of the citizens using the Internet for political purposes has changed and how this relates to such theoretical perspectives. Using survey data from four Finnish parli...
Focusing events, i.e. crises and catastrophes, provide an opportunity for political change, learning and evaluation of governmental performance. Likewise, it is essential that citizens trust that their society can provide credence towards managing these situations. This study tests, in a controlled laboratory experiment, in what manner the origin (...
Democratic theorists often envision public deliberation as being essential to the working of democracy. Several scholars have also highlighted a potential for realising such deliberations on the internet. Consequentially, an emerging array of experiments in online deliberation has now been developed to achieve online discussions, which would be ben...
There is a perception that citizen deliberation brings about higher-quality discussions than discussions where deliberative norms are not used. Often, deliberations are realised in mini-publics in which certain contextual features ensure, a priori, that the discussions are likely to be of a high quality. However, few studies have as yet explored th...
This article analyzes Internet use in conjunction with the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election. The aim was to examine online participation and aspects of its mobilizing potential by studying both the extent and the ways citizens used the Internet for participatory activities. The analysis utilizes survey data from the Finnish National Election Stu...
The changing patterns of political engagement present a methodological challenge for the study of political behavior. Citizens have to an increasing degree abandoned partisan forms of political participation in favor of issue-based action. At the same time, the political action of younger generations is facilitated, or even enhanced, by constantly...
This chapter examines whether exposure to the personal Websites and blogs of party leaders during an election campaign affects the perceptions held by voters regarding the traits of party leaders. Additionally, the effects of Website exposure and blog exposure are compared. The chapter presents two experiments conducted during the 2007 Finnish gene...
This article analyses the use of social media by both candidates and citizens in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary election campaign. Utilizing data on the candidates’ use of various social media sites, survey data from the 2011 Finnish election study, and survey data from a Finnish panel, the analyses reveal that the significance of social media was...
As discussoes online entre cidadaos sao objeto de discussao academica e de diversos estudos empiricos ha varios anos, tendo os estudiosos perspetivado estas discussoes como potenciais lugares de deliberacao dos cidadaos. Muitas vezes, contudo, os resultados empiricos nao sustentam estas nocoes. A qualidade da discussao nao e, frequentemente, adequa...
Resumo
Online discussions between citizens have been subject to scholarly debate and several empirical studies for a substantial period of time. Scholars have envisioned these as potential venues for citizens’ deliberation. Often, however, empirical findings do not support these notions. The quality of discussion is often not up to the standards o...
This article concerns whether and how political candidates adopt social media in their election campaigns. For campaigns, the openness and interactivity of social media tools bring about risks in terms of losing control over the message. Departing from a cost-benefit perspective, this study addresses the question as to whether certain groups of can...
In this article, findings are presented from a pilot experiment carried out online via a platform designed specifically for citizen deliberation. The purpose of the experiment was to assess how online deliberation works in practice and also to test several hypotheses concerning the effects of taking part in an online deliberation has on participant...
Politicians rely on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to exercise political power. Citizens around the world also use these tools to vent political frustrations, join political groups and organize revolutions. Political activists blog to promote candidates, solicit and coordinate financial contributions and provide opportunities for volunteers. iPoliti...
Two contemporary promises of participatory democracy are addressed in the present article; (a) democratic decisions reached in small group deliberation between lay citizens and (b) the possibility to exploit information and communication technology in democratic dialogue and decision making. Initially, a quasi-experimental approach was used to expl...
This article examines the campaign websites of the 2003 Finnish parliamentary candidates. By examining candidate-level online competition in the candidate-centred Finnish context, individual-level variables are brought to attention in explaining website uptake and how campaign sites are used by candidates in terms of functions and sophistication. T...
This article seeks to expand the research on the adoption of social networking Web sites in electoral politics beyond the U.S. by exploring the use and impact of the YouTube video-sharing Web site in the 2007 Finnish national elections. Focusing on uploaded videos featuring candidates, the study shows that YouTube played a marginal role in the elec...
This article examines on-line political discussions' po- tential of becoming truly deliberative discussions, capable of bringing about democratic benefi ts, through combining two theoretically important aspects found in the literature - concerns regarding citizens' participation in on-line poli- tics and the quality (or lack thereof ) of on-line di...
This article takes a close look at two important theories concerning the effects that online party campaigning has on party competition. The equalization and normalization theories are tested for systematic logical dependence on conditions present in existing studies within the research field. The conditions are country-specific contextual settings...
According to one theoretical point of view, the character of a political party, especially its general goals, would be reflected in the contents of its website. In this article, the plausibility of this view, which is called an ‘actor-constructivist’ view in the article, is explored by means of a twofold analysis. The Finnish parties’ opinions conc...
The growth of the Internet during the last decade has resulted in much scholarly attention. Supporters of the optimistic mobilization-theory argue that cyber politics and cyber discussions are comparable and sometimes even superior to traditional politics. Moreover this new form of politics has the potential of mobilizing new citizens into the real...
This article explores the internet's role in the Finnish 2004 European election. The first aim is to explore how different actors employed the web during the campaign. The second aim is to analyze the impact of the actors' web strategies on voters. Two circumstances make Finland interesting. First, the basic prerequisite for web campaigning is fulf...
