Four voting bubbles were found to exist in Finland. In this blog post, we will tell you what these bubbles are.
Finnish municipal elections will be held in June this year. They were moved from April to June due to the pandemic. We have discussed Finnish municipal elections and voting in four blog posts since last fall. These posts, as well as the urrent one, are part of our efforts to encourage eligible non-citizens to exercise their right to vote.
Basic information about voting in Finnish municipal elections
It may seem Oman WhatsApp Number List difficult to vote in a country where you have not grown up. First, voting practices may be different and unfamiliar. Second, it can be difficult to find enough information about parties, candidates, and the political landscape as a whole for people to feel informed enough to vote.
Finnish national broadcaster YLE recently published a simple but comprehensive guide to municipal elections. This article also describes the voting system used in Finland.
The Ministry of Justice also provides comprehensive guidance on voting in Finland. They provide basic voting information in at least 31 different languages.
However, these sources do not reveal much about Finland's current political landscape. They did not explain who the Finnish political parties currently represent. We’ve discussed this a bit in two previous blog posts.
In our blog post of November 26, 2020, we looked at voting activity in Finnish municipal elections. This specifically focuses on voting activities by eligible non-citizens.
However, the proportion of Finland's population working in agriculture and industry has long been declining. Instead, a growing number of different types of service jobs blend the traditional boundaries between the working class and the middle class.
As traditional middle-class jobs disappear, those in the middle class who have traditionally viewed their status and future as secure face growing insecurity.
Im, Kantola, Kauppinen, and Wass argue that these structural changes disrupt traditional class-based voting patterns. Instead, new divisions emerged in voting behavior within social classes.
The emergence of new political parties provides voters with channels to express their insecurities and seek remedies. Additionally, voters are increasingly switching from one election to another.
In their study, Im, Kantola, Kauppinen, and Wass aimed to understand the types of voting blocs that Finnish voters form today. They admit that Finland has 4 voting bubbles with no clear link to social class.
Research
For the study, Im, Kantola, Kauppinen, and Wass surveyed 4,000 eligible voters. They asked respondents which parties they had voted for during their lifetime and which parties they might consider voting for in the future.
There are more men than women in this group. There are also more people with higher education.
More than others, they consider themselves winners of globalization. They also believe that their social status is above average. They also believe that this will continue to be the case in the future. In their view, changes in the world do not threaten their place in the world.