Henrik Oscarsson
Biographic Data
| ID | 1534383 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Henrik Oscarsson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Henrik |
| FAMILY NAME | Oscarsson |
| SIGNATURE | OSCARSSON H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Gothenburg |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5946-004X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 163 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Right up my alley
Electoral success of radical right parties is often argued to normalize previously stigmatized anti-immigration attitudes. Yet, it remains unclear whether such normalization reflects genuine within-individual persuasion or shifts in the local climate of political expression. We address this question by linking highly disaggregated district-level vote shares to individual-level panel survey data from Sweden (2018–2022), a period marked by sustaine…
Can People be Made More Rational? Testing Whether People’s Ability to Assess Arguments can be Enhanced
Scholars have expressed widespread concern about voters’ ability to critically evaluate political messages, particularly in light of recent democratic outcomes such as the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum. This study investigates whether written instructions alone—without interpersonal interaction—can enhance individuals’ ability to assess the strength of arguments. Drawing on the argument scheme approach and its associated crit…
The Voter Next Door
Despite the influence of stigmatization on vote choices, little attention has been given to the impact of social stigma on voters’ selection of voting procedures. To bridge this gap, our study focuses on Sweden, where the open-display ballot system at polling stations potentially compromises vote secrecy. Using survey data from the Swedish National Election Studies in 2014 and 2018, we examine the relationship between citizens’ voting procedure c…
The Swedish regional elections 2018
The Swedish regional elections of 2018 show a consistently high electoral turnout in all regions, and large vote-share variations for different parties across regions. There are not much second order election effects, but at the same time, the nationalization effects are less than could have been expected due to the vertical and horizontal simultaneous elections. In spite of concurrent elections, ticket splitting in Sweden has increased over time…
Confidence in an election authority and satisfaction with democracy
Effects of Conditional Incentives on Response Rate, Non-Response Bias and Measurement Error in a High Response-Rate Context
All over the world, surveys of all topics and all modes are witnessing similar trends of declining response rates (Blohm & Koch, 2013; Dixon & Tucker, 2010). Increasing levels of survey non-response is an international phenomenon (Beullens, Loosveldt, Vandenplas & Stoop, 2018; Brick & Williams 2013; De Leeuw & de Heer, 2002). In Sweden, social science surveys have up until recently enjoyed relatively high response rates around or above 60%. Howev…
Consideration set models of electoral choice
In electoral research, decisions by voters are usually analysed as if they choose at once from the whole set of all competing parties or candidates. Consideration Set Models (CSM) posit that voters choose differently, namely in two stages. In the first stage, they exclude certain choice options and create a consideration set of viable options, while in the second stage they choose from within this set. This paper, which serves as an introduction …
Sequential vote choice
When and Why Are Voters Correct in Their Evaluations of Specific Government Performance
Democratic theories expect citizens to be able to accurately evaluate fulfilment of parties’ election pledges. We use specifically designed survey items from the Swedish National Election Study to compare citizens’ perceptions of the fulfilment of specific party pledges with actual fulfilment and assess circumstances that lead to correct evaluations. We find that political knowledge triumphs partisan attachments to incumbent parties when it comes…
Consideration and Choice
For a long time the question of to what extent party choice in the European Parliament (EP) elections is primarily dependent on voters’ orientations towards the European Union (EU) or just a mere reflection of orientations towards issues and actors in national politics has been debated. By combining insights from individual‐level models of party choice in second‐order elections with theories of sequential decision making this article investigates…
The Swedish general election 2014
Party Leader Effects on the Vote
This chapter examines the effects of party leaders on the vote. It tests the following hypotheses: first, that party leader popularity has a fairly substantial impact on the vote in most political systems irrespective of electoral procedures; second, that party leaders over time have become a greater influence on the vote; third, that to the extent that we find leader effects on the vote, we expect them to be more pronounced in elections characte…
Leader Traits, Leader Image, and Vote Choice
This chapter examines whether the role of leader characteristics in parliamentary systems, where political parties are traditionally stronger, is similar to the one in a presidential system. Analyses of parliamentary and presidential systems show that leader traits such as leadership capabilities, trustworthiness, reliability, and empathy are closely related to the overall image of political leaders as well as to the eventual voting decision. In …
Party choice in hard times
The Generational Effect in Turnout in the Swedish General Elections, 1960–2010
Recent analyses have reported a generational pattern in electoral participation both in national and the European Parliament elections which suggests that a lower voting propensity among the younger cohorts remains relatively stable over time. Based on the Swedish national election studies 1960–2010, this article examines the magnitude of generational differences in a high‐turnout context. It contributes to earlier studies by using multilevel mod…
Party elites’ perceptions of voting behaviour
We propose a framework for analysing party elite perceptions of voting behaviour based on four party competition and voting behaviour models: the Downsian proximity, saliency, competence and directional models. We analyse whether and to what extent party elite perceptions support these theories of party competition and voting behaviour. Empirical analysis is based solely on internal party documents from two Swedish parties, the Social Democrats a…
Party Elites' Perceptions of Voters and Public Opinion
Given the vast amounts of research on party competition, party strategy, political communication and electoral campaigning, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the study of national party elites' perceptions of voters and public opinion. This article argues that the mindset of leading party officials, and more specifically their perceptions of voter and public opinion rationality, driving forces and knowledge, is a much‐neglected ex…
Did the Egalitarian Reforms of the Swedish Educational System Equalise Levels of Democratic Citizenship
In the mid-1990s an extensive reform of the Swedish educational system was initiated in order to create a 'school for everyone' intended to function like a 'social equaliser'. The new unified gymnasium initiated longer educational programmes with an extended curriculum of social science courses. This article examines whether the well documented gap in levels of democratic citizenship indicators between students in theoretical and vocational gymna…
A Matter of Fact? Knowledge Effects on the Vote in Swedish General Elections, 1985–2002
What would have happened in general elections if all voters had more closely approximated the democratic ideal of a ‘fully informed’ voter? Earlier analyses have demonstrated politically consequential effects of political information on American voters’ political preferences. In an effort to expand the validity of these results, the author of this article performed counterfactual analyses of aggregate election outcomes in six Swedish general elec…
Mapping the Nordic Party Space
The left‐right positions of the political parties in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland are compared from the late 1970s to the beginning of the 1990s. To locate the parties, survey data on the voters' self‐placements along the left‐right continuum are used. In order to study changes in the left‐right polarity and the degree of consensus along the left‐right continuum in each of the countries, we use the mean party positions to calcula…
Consideration set models of electoral choice
In electoral research, decisions by voters are usually analysed as if they choose at once from the whole set of all competing parties or candidates. Consideration Set Models (CSM) posit that voters choose differently, namely in two stages. In the first stage, they exclude certain choice options and create a consideration set of viable options, while in the second stage they choose from within this set. This paper, which serves as an introduction …
When and Why Are Voters Correct in Their Evaluations of Specific Government Performance
Democratic theories expect citizens to be able to accurately evaluate fulfilment of parties’ election pledges. We use specifically designed survey items from the Swedish National Election Study to compare citizens’ perceptions of the fulfilment of specific party pledges with actual fulfilment and assess circumstances that lead to correct evaluations. We find that political knowledge triumphs partisan attachments to incumbent parties when it comes…
Mapping the Nordic Party Space
The left‐right positions of the political parties in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland are compared from the late 1970s to the beginning of the 1990s. To locate the parties, survey data on the voters' self‐placements along the left‐right continuum are used. In order to study changes in the left‐right polarity and the degree of consensus along the left‐right continuum in each of the countries, we use the mean party positions to calcula…
Did the Egalitarian Reforms of the Swedish Educational System Equalise Levels of Democratic Citizenship
In the mid-1990s an extensive reform of the Swedish educational system was initiated in order to create a 'school for everyone' intended to function like a 'social equaliser'. The new unified gymnasium initiated longer educational programmes with an extended curriculum of social science courses. This article examines whether the well documented gap in levels of democratic citizenship indicators between students in theoretical and vocational gymna…
A Matter of Fact? Knowledge Effects on the Vote in Swedish General Elections, 1985–2002
What would have happened in general elections if all voters had more closely approximated the democratic ideal of a ‘fully informed’ voter? Earlier analyses have demonstrated politically consequential effects of political information on American voters’ political preferences. In an effort to expand the validity of these results, the author of this article performed counterfactual analyses of aggregate election outcomes in six Swedish general elec…
The Generational Effect in Turnout in the Swedish General Elections, 1960–2010
Recent analyses have reported a generational pattern in electoral participation both in national and the European Parliament elections which suggests that a lower voting propensity among the younger cohorts remains relatively stable over time. Based on the Swedish national election studies 1960–2010, this article examines the magnitude of generational differences in a high‐turnout context. It contributes to earlier studies by using multilevel mod…
Confidence in an election authority and satisfaction with democracy
Sequential vote choice
Consideration and Choice
For a long time the question of to what extent party choice in the European Parliament (EP) elections is primarily dependent on voters’ orientations towards the European Union (EU) or just a mere reflection of orientations towards issues and actors in national politics has been debated. By combining insights from individual‐level models of party choice in second‐order elections with theories of sequential decision making this article investigates…
Party elites’ perceptions of voting behaviour
We propose a framework for analysing party elite perceptions of voting behaviour based on four party competition and voting behaviour models: the Downsian proximity, saliency, competence and directional models. We analyse whether and to what extent party elite perceptions support these theories of party competition and voting behaviour. Empirical analysis is based solely on internal party documents from two Swedish parties, the Social Democrats a…
Party Elites' Perceptions of Voters and Public Opinion
Given the vast amounts of research on party competition, party strategy, political communication and electoral campaigning, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the study of national party elites' perceptions of voters and public opinion. This article argues that the mindset of leading party officials, and more specifically their perceptions of voter and public opinion rationality, driving forces and knowledge, is a much‐neglected ex…
The Swedish regional elections 2018
The Swedish regional elections of 2018 show a consistently high electoral turnout in all regions, and large vote-share variations for different parties across regions. There are not much second order election effects, but at the same time, the nationalization effects are less than could have been expected due to the vertical and horizontal simultaneous elections. In spite of concurrent elections, ticket splitting in Sweden has increased over time…
Party choice in hard times
The Voter Next Door
Despite the influence of stigmatization on vote choices, little attention has been given to the impact of social stigma on voters’ selection of voting procedures. To bridge this gap, our study focuses on Sweden, where the open-display ballot system at polling stations potentially compromises vote secrecy. Using survey data from the Swedish National Election Studies in 2014 and 2018, we examine the relationship between citizens’ voting procedure c…
Mapping the Nordic Party Space
The left‐right positions of the political parties in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland are compared from the late 1970s to the beginning of the 1990s. To locate the parties, survey data on the voters' self‐placements along the left‐right continuum are used. In order to study changes in the left‐right polarity and the degree of consensus along the left‐right continuum in each of the countries, we use the mean party positions to calcula…
A Matter of Fact? Knowledge Effects on the Vote in Swedish General Elections, 1985–2002
What would have happened in general elections if all voters had more closely approximated the democratic ideal of a ‘fully informed’ voter? Earlier analyses have demonstrated politically consequential effects of political information on American voters’ political preferences. In an effort to expand the validity of these results, the author of this article performed counterfactual analyses of aggregate election outcomes in six Swedish general elec…
Did the Egalitarian Reforms of the Swedish Educational System Equalise Levels of Democratic Citizenship
In the mid-1990s an extensive reform of the Swedish educational system was initiated in order to create a 'school for everyone' intended to function like a 'social equaliser'. The new unified gymnasium initiated longer educational programmes with an extended curriculum of social science courses. This article examines whether the well documented gap in levels of democratic citizenship indicators between students in theoretical and vocational gymna…
Party Elites' Perceptions of Voters and Public Opinion
Given the vast amounts of research on party competition, party strategy, political communication and electoral campaigning, surprisingly little attention has been devoted to the study of national party elites' perceptions of voters and public opinion. This article argues that the mindset of leading party officials, and more specifically their perceptions of voter and public opinion rationality, driving forces and knowledge, is a much‐neglected ex…
Party Leader Effects on the Vote
This chapter examines the effects of party leaders on the vote. It tests the following hypotheses: first, that party leader popularity has a fairly substantial impact on the vote in most political systems irrespective of electoral procedures; second, that party leaders over time have become a greater influence on the vote; third, that to the extent that we find leader effects on the vote, we expect them to be more pronounced in elections characte…
Leader Traits, Leader Image, and Vote Choice
This chapter examines whether the role of leader characteristics in parliamentary systems, where political parties are traditionally stronger, is similar to the one in a presidential system. Analyses of parliamentary and presidential systems show that leader traits such as leadership capabilities, trustworthiness, reliability, and empathy are closely related to the overall image of political leaders as well as to the eventual voting decision. In …
Party choice in hard times
The Generational Effect in Turnout in the Swedish General Elections, 1960–2010
Recent analyses have reported a generational pattern in electoral participation both in national and the European Parliament elections which suggests that a lower voting propensity among the younger cohorts remains relatively stable over time. Based on the Swedish national election studies 1960–2010, this article examines the magnitude of generational differences in a high‐turnout context. It contributes to earlier studies by using multilevel mod…
Party elites’ perceptions of voting behaviour
We propose a framework for analysing party elite perceptions of voting behaviour based on four party competition and voting behaviour models: the Downsian proximity, saliency, competence and directional models. We analyse whether and to what extent party elite perceptions support these theories of party competition and voting behaviour. Empirical analysis is based solely on internal party documents from two Swedish parties, the Social Democrats a…
The Swedish general election 2014
Consideration and Choice
For a long time the question of to what extent party choice in the European Parliament (EP) elections is primarily dependent on voters’ orientations towards the European Union (EU) or just a mere reflection of orientations towards issues and actors in national politics has been debated. By combining insights from individual‐level models of party choice in second‐order elections with theories of sequential decision making this article investigates…
When and Why Are Voters Correct in Their Evaluations of Specific Government Performance
Democratic theories expect citizens to be able to accurately evaluate fulfilment of parties’ election pledges. We use specifically designed survey items from the Swedish National Election Study to compare citizens’ perceptions of the fulfilment of specific party pledges with actual fulfilment and assess circumstances that lead to correct evaluations. We find that political knowledge triumphs partisan attachments to incumbent parties when it comes…
Effects of Conditional Incentives on Response Rate, Non-Response Bias and Measurement Error in a High Response-Rate Context
All over the world, surveys of all topics and all modes are witnessing similar trends of declining response rates (Blohm & Koch, 2013; Dixon & Tucker, 2010). Increasing levels of survey non-response is an international phenomenon (Beullens, Loosveldt, Vandenplas & Stoop, 2018; Brick & Williams 2013; De Leeuw & de Heer, 2002). In Sweden, social science surveys have up until recently enjoyed relatively high response rates around or above 60%. Howev…
Consideration set models of electoral choice
In electoral research, decisions by voters are usually analysed as if they choose at once from the whole set of all competing parties or candidates. Consideration Set Models (CSM) posit that voters choose differently, namely in two stages. In the first stage, they exclude certain choice options and create a consideration set of viable options, while in the second stage they choose from within this set. This paper, which serves as an introduction …
Sequential vote choice
The Swedish regional elections 2018
The Swedish regional elections of 2018 show a consistently high electoral turnout in all regions, and large vote-share variations for different parties across regions. There are not much second order election effects, but at the same time, the nationalization effects are less than could have been expected due to the vertical and horizontal simultaneous elections. In spite of concurrent elections, ticket splitting in Sweden has increased over time…
Confidence in an election authority and satisfaction with democracy
The Voter Next Door
Despite the influence of stigmatization on vote choices, little attention has been given to the impact of social stigma on voters’ selection of voting procedures. To bridge this gap, our study focuses on Sweden, where the open-display ballot system at polling stations potentially compromises vote secrecy. Using survey data from the Swedish National Election Studies in 2014 and 2018, we examine the relationship between citizens’ voting procedure c…
Can People be Made More Rational? Testing Whether People’s Ability to Assess Arguments can be Enhanced
Scholars have expressed widespread concern about voters’ ability to critically evaluate political messages, particularly in light of recent democratic outcomes such as the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum. This study investigates whether written instructions alone—without interpersonal interaction—can enhance individuals’ ability to assess the strength of arguments. Drawing on the argument scheme approach and its associated crit…
Right up my alley
Electoral success of radical right parties is often argued to normalize previously stigmatized anti-immigration attitudes. Yet, it remains unclear whether such normalization reflects genuine within-individual persuasion or shifts in the local climate of political expression. We address this question by linking highly disaggregated district-level vote shares to individual-level panel survey data from Sweden (2018–2022), a period marked by sustaine…
Political science (18 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (17 works) · Politics (17 works) · Law (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Democracy (10 works) · Political economy (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Social Media and Politics (8 works)