Kim Strandberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 2160796 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kim Strandberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kim |
| FAMILY NAME | Strandberg |
| SIGNATURE | STRANDBERG K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Åbo Akademi University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6357-5643 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 256 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
‘Communism made me do it’: Disruptive right-wing publics as a polarising force in TikTok comments
TikTok is currently one of the most topical social media platforms in modern democracies due to its ability to reach large, young audiences and the concerns over outside influences and the algorithmic nature of feeds. In Finland, the parliamentary elections of 2023 marked an increase in interest for the platform. At the same time, polarisation is also a trending subject in European social media and society, with TikTok being discussed as one of t…
How issue opinions relate to individual-level affective polarization: Exploring the psychological mechanisms of affective polarization regarding immigration in a multi-party setting
This study explores how differing opinions on immigration relate to affective polarization via either moderation or mediation by two factors: (i) emotional attachment to people with similar opinions to oneself; and (ii) perceived threat from people with opposing views to oneself. The data for the study ( n = 2,291) were collected from a representative online panel among Swedish-speaking Finns, a setting in which partisan animosity is low and the …
Ingroup Favoritism? Explaining Intergroup Bias in Trait Evaluations among Members of an Ethnolinguistic Minority in Finland
This study examines intergroup bias among members of the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland—a high-status ethnolinguistic minority group. Drawing on social identity theory and intergroup threat theory, the study explores ingroup favoritism and identifies key predictors of individual-level bias. Using survey data from 1,096 Swedish-speaking Finns, the study uses trait-based evaluations of both ingroup and outgroup members. Results show that inte…
The Deliberative Type? How Different Personalities Prefer and Experience Public Deliberation
Personality significantly affects political attitudes and behaviours, yet its role in deliberative participation remains underexplored. This study examines how the Big Five personality traits shape individuals’ willingness to participate in deliberation and their experiences of structured like‐minded deliberation compared to unregulated like‐minded discussion. Informal like‐minded discussions—such as those on social media – are often intolerant a…
Lighting the participatory spark? The role of social media influencers in initiating political participation
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 perceptions and political participation. A moderated mediation model was developed and tested using data …
Beyond negativity? A laboratory study on emotional responses to populist strategies on social media
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 study. Thus, the study critically tests the effectiveness of de-demonization strategies used by popul…
Quality User-Generated Content? A Case Study of the Quality of Online News Comments on the Site of Finnish Public Service Broadcaster Yle
Over the years, studies have assessed the quality of discourse in comment sections and results have been mixed. Some argue that newspapers have created forums for hate speech against minorities, that the quality of discourse undermines the democratic potential of comment sections, or that comments are troubled by incivility. Others have found that commenters produce content resembling public deliberation and that comment sections can contain frui…
Ethnolinguistic Attitudes as Drivers of Affective Polarization against Ethnic Parties: The Case of the Swedish People's Party in Finland
This study explores the link between ethnic divides and affective polarization by proposing that individual differences in outparty affect towards ethnic parties are associated with either prejudice against the ethnic group or dissatisfaction with minority accommodation at the sociotropic or egotropic level. We test this proposal through a case study of the Swedish People’s Party in Finland. Using survey data, we find that sociotropic concerns ha…
Only losers use excuses? Exploring the association between the winner-loser gap and referendum attitudes following a local referendum
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 expected to differ among the population as referendums, by design, divides the participants into winners an…
Deliberative Mini-publics Facilitating Voter Knowledge and Judgement: Experience from a Finnish Local Referendum
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 tested outside the U.S.A. or in the context of government-initiated referendums. Our case is a Citi…
Beyond polarization and selective trust: A Citizens’ Jury as a trusted source of information
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 referendum on a municipal merger. Our analysis is based on a field experiment measuring the effects of rea…
Disagreement and Deliberation: Evidence from Three Deliberative Mini-Publics
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 with random selection. The topic of the first deliberation was nuclear power, the second dealt with…
Consultative referendums and democracy - assessing the short-term effects on political support of a referendum on a municipal merger
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 add to this line of research by assessing how a local referendum about a municipal merger affects ex…
When Social Media Influencers Go Political: An Exploratory Analysis on the Emergence of Political Topics Among Finnish Influencers
Social media influencers are often understood as non-political actors who, due to the impact they exert on their followers’ purchase decisions and brand attitudes, play an important role in marketing and branding. In recent years, various influencers have addressed political issues during important political events such as elections. This political aspect of social media influencing has not received much scholarly interest thus far. In one of the…
Puzzles in affective polarization research: Party attitudes, partisan social distance, and multiple party identification
Affective polarization refers to people having favorable attitudes toward their preferred political parties, or inparties, along with their supporters, and negative attitudes toward other parties, or outparties, and their supporters. Originally an American concept, there is now growing interest in studying (AP) in European countries characterized by multiparty systems. So far, researchers have primarily focused on like-dislike ratings when measur…
Citizens’ intertemporal perspectives on municipal mergers and the role of deliberation for these
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 intertemporal opinions. This was done partially by tracing the development of intertemporal opinions of the jur…
Lowered Expectations and Shifting Standards? – Two Survey Experiments exploring Neo‐populist Political Scandals and the Perceived Trustworthiness of Politicians
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 ‘typical’ behavior. In this article, we explore how involvement in neo‐populist scandals affects the publi…
Knowledge, Trust or Perspectives? A Causal Mediation Analysis of How a Citizens’ Jury Affected Voting Intentions in the General Public
Previous studies suggest that information from deliberative 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 information proxy, or 3) perspective‐taking of the opinions of others. The data come from a referendum…
When citizens met politicians – the process and outcomes of mixed deliberation according to participant status and gender
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 equality. Citizens and politicians have different deliberative capacities, which could affect the p…
Introducing the Journal of Deliberative Democracy
This editorial introduction provides a statement of our vision for the Journal of Deliberative Democracy and an overview of the Special Issue on the Frontiers of Deliberative Democracy
Citizens' Attitudes Towards Municipal Mergers – Individual‐level Explanations
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 that are yet to be decided on. Specifically, the factors of main interest in this study are political …
When reality strikes: Opinion changes among citizens and politicians during a deliberation on school closures
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 opinion convergence between citizens and politicians. The citizens’ forum used an experimental desig…
A New Leaf for Public Deliberation
The Journal of Public Deliberation is turning over a new leaf. This short introduction maps new directions for the journal and invites readers to continue engaging the vibrant field of deliberative democracy
A Participatory Personality? Examining the Influence of Personality Traits on Political Participation
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 behaviour. The results suggest that variations in personality to some extent affect what kind of activ…
Expanding the Online Political Demos but Maintaining the Status Quo? Internet and Social Media Use by Finnish Voters Prior to Elections, 2003–15
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 parliamentary elections, 2003–15, this longitudinal study examines the evolution of the predictors of bel…
Do discussions in like-minded groups necessarily lead to more extreme opinions? Deliberative democracy and group polarization
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 everyone seems to agree with. Hence, there is a tendency for groups to become more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. We designed an experiment to test whether introduc…
A social media revolution or just a case of history repeating itself? The use of social media in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary elections
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 generally modest in the election campaign. The findings show that although candidates did use social…
Online Electoral Competition in Different Settings: A Comparative Meta-Analysis of the Research on Party Websites and Online Electoral Competition
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 and studyspecific methodology. The method of qualitative comparative analysis is used, such that va…
Deliberative Mini-publics Facilitating Voter Knowledge and Judgement: Experience from a Finnish Local Referendum
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 tested outside the U.S.A. or in the context of government-initiated referendums. Our case is a Citi…
Beyond polarization and selective trust: A Citizens’ Jury as a trusted source of information
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 referendum on a municipal merger. Our analysis is based on a field experiment measuring the effects of rea…
The 2004 European parliament election on the web: Finnish actor strategies and voter responses
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 fulfilled since the northern countries, including Finland, are the most 'wired' area in Europe. Second, …
A Participatory Personality? Examining the Influence of Personality Traits on Political Participation
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 behaviour. The results suggest that variations in personality to some extent affect what kind of activ…
Online campaigning: An opening for the outsiders? An analysis of Finnish parliamentary candidates' websites in the 2003 election campaign
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. The findings show that the distribution of the candidates' web presence was skewed towards an over-re…
Puzzles in affective polarization research: Party attitudes, partisan social distance, and multiple party identification
Affective polarization refers to people having favorable attitudes toward their preferred political parties, or inparties, along with their supporters, and negative attitudes toward other parties, or outparties, and their supporters. Originally an American concept, there is now growing interest in studying (AP) in European countries characterized by multiparty systems. So far, researchers have primarily focused on like-dislike ratings when measur…
Citizens' Attitudes Towards Municipal Mergers – Individual‐level Explanations
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 that are yet to be decided on. Specifically, the factors of main interest in this study are political …
Designing for democracy: An Experimental Study Comparing the Outcomes of Citizen Discussions in Online Forums With Those of Online Discussions in a Forum Designed According to Deliberative Principles
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 beneficial for democracy. However, few studies have yet attempted to compare the outcomes of online min…
Taking Risks in Social Media Campaigning: The Early Adoption of Blogging by Candidates
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 candidates – differing in incumbency status, party type, gender, generation and urbanization level of t…
Online Deliberation and Its Outcome—Evidence from the Virtual Polity Experiment
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 participants. Additionally, an examination is made to ascertain whether a variation in the deliberative procedu…
Consultative referendums and democracy - assessing the short-term effects on political support of a referendum on a municipal merger
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 add to this line of research by assessing how a local referendum about a municipal merger affects ex…
Riding the Web 2.0 Wave: Candidates on YouTube in the 2007 Finnish National Elections
Throughout history, election campaigns have constantly responded to new modes of communication and utilized the latest in communications in order to achieve the goal of vote maximization on the electoral arena (e.g. Esaiasson, 1991; Jamieson, 1984
When reality strikes: Opinion changes among citizens and politicians during a deliberation on school closures
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 opinion convergence between citizens and politicians. The citizens’ forum used an experimental desig…
Online Newspapers’ Readers’ Comments - Democratic Conversation Platforms or Virtual Soapboxes
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 of truly deliberative discussions. Nonetheless, there are strains of evidence suggesting that online discussi…
Lowered Expectations and Shifting Standards? – Two Survey Experiments exploring Neo‐populist Political Scandals and the Perceived Trustworthiness of Politicians
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 ‘typical’ behavior. In this article, we explore how involvement in neo‐populist scandals affects the publi…
Disagreement and Deliberation: Evidence from Three Deliberative Mini-Publics
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 with random selection. The topic of the first deliberation was nuclear power, the second dealt with…
Knowledge, Trust or Perspectives? A Causal Mediation Analysis of How a Citizens’ Jury Affected Voting Intentions in the General Public
Previous studies suggest that information from deliberative 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 information proxy, or 3) perspective‐taking of the opinions of others. The data come from a referendum…
When citizens met politicians – the process and outcomes of mixed deliberation according to participant status and gender
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 equality. Citizens and politicians have different deliberative capacities, which could affect the p…
Mapping the Online Campaign Audience: An Analysis of Online Participation and Its Mobilizing Potential in the 2011 Finnish Parliamentary Campaign
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 Study survey. The findings show that a certain group of citizens uses the Internet in a broad and expre…
The 2004 European parliament election on the web: Finnish actor strategies and voter responses
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 fulfilled since the northern countries, including Finland, are the most 'wired' area in Europe. Second, …
It's the Inside that Counts? An Explorative Analysis of Finnish Parties’ Opinions Concerning the Importance and Use of Their Websites, and Website Contents, in Relation to Party Characteristics
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 concerning the importance and use of their websites, and the contents of their websites, are both analys…
Riding the Web 2.0 Wave: Candidates on YouTube in the 2007 Finnish National Elections
Throughout history, election campaigns have constantly responded to new modes of communication and utilized the latest in communications in order to achieve the goal of vote maximization on the electoral arena (e.g. Esaiasson, 1991; Jamieson, 1984
Online Electoral Competition in Different Settings: A Comparative Meta-Analysis of the Research on Party Websites and Online Electoral Competition
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 and studyspecific methodology. The method of qualitative comparative analysis is used, such that va…
Online campaigning: An opening for the outsiders? An analysis of Finnish parliamentary candidates' websites in the 2003 election campaign
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. The findings show that the distribution of the candidates' web presence was skewed towards an over-re…
Online Deliberation and Its Outcome—Evidence from the Virtual Polity Experiment
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 participants. Additionally, an examination is made to ascertain whether a variation in the deliberative procedu…
Participatory Democratic Innovations in Europe: Improving the Quality of Democracy
A social media revolution or just a case of history repeating itself? The use of social media in the 2011 Finnish parliamentary elections
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 generally modest in the election campaign. The findings show that although candidates did use social…
Online Newspapers’ Readers’ Comments - Democratic Conversation Platforms or Virtual Soapboxes
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 of truly deliberative discussions. Nonetheless, there are strains of evidence suggesting that online discussi…
Comentários dos Leitores dos Jornais Online: Conversa Democrática ou Discursos de Opereta Virtuais
As discussões online entre cidadãos são objeto de discussão académica e de diversos estudos empíricos há vários anos, tendo os estudiosos perspetivado estas discussões como potenciais lugares de deliberação dos cidadãos. Muitas vezes, contudo, os resultados empíricos não sustentam estas noções. A qualidade da discussão não é, frequentemente, adequada aos padrões das discussões deliberadas. Alguns resultados, porém, indicam que os lugares de discu…
Mapping the Online Campaign Audience: An Analysis of Online Participation and Its Mobilizing Potential in the 2011 Finnish Parliamentary Campaign
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 Study survey. The findings show that a certain group of citizens uses the Internet in a broad and expre…
Designing for democracy: An Experimental Study Comparing the Outcomes of Citizen Discussions in Online Forums With Those of Online Discussions in a Forum Designed According to Deliberative Principles
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 beneficial for democracy. However, few studies have yet attempted to compare the outcomes of online min…
Taking Risks in Social Media Campaigning: The Early Adoption of Blogging by Candidates
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 candidates – differing in incumbency status, party type, gender, generation and urbanization level of t…
Expanding the Online Political Demos but Maintaining the Status Quo? Internet and Social Media Use by Finnish Voters Prior to Elections, 2003–15
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 parliamentary elections, 2003–15, this longitudinal study examines the evolution of the predictors of bel…
Do discussions in like-minded groups necessarily lead to more extreme opinions? Deliberative democracy and group polarization
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 everyone seems to agree with. Hence, there is a tendency for groups to become more extreme than the initial inclination of its members. We designed an experiment to test whether introduc…
A Participatory Personality? Examining the Influence of Personality Traits on Political Participation
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 behaviour. The results suggest that variations in personality to some extent affect what kind of activ…
A New Leaf for Public Deliberation
The Journal of Public Deliberation is turning over a new leaf. This short introduction maps new directions for the journal and invites readers to continue engaging the vibrant field of deliberative democracy
Introducing the Journal of Deliberative Democracy
This editorial introduction provides a statement of our vision for the Journal of Deliberative Democracy and an overview of the Special Issue on the Frontiers of Deliberative Democracy
Citizens' Attitudes Towards Municipal Mergers – Individual‐level Explanations
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 that are yet to be decided on. Specifically, the factors of main interest in this study are political …
When reality strikes: Opinion changes among citizens and politicians during a deliberation on school closures
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 opinion convergence between citizens and politicians. The citizens’ forum used an experimental desig…
When citizens met politicians – the process and outcomes of mixed deliberation according to participant status and gender
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 equality. Citizens and politicians have different deliberative capacities, which could affect the p…
When Social Media Influencers Go Political: An Exploratory Analysis on the Emergence of Political Topics Among Finnish Influencers
Social media influencers are often understood as non-political actors who, due to the impact they exert on their followers’ purchase decisions and brand attitudes, play an important role in marketing and branding. In recent years, various influencers have addressed political issues during important political events such as elections. This political aspect of social media influencing has not received much scholarly interest thus far. In one of the…
Puzzles in affective polarization research: Party attitudes, partisan social distance, and multiple party identification
Affective polarization refers to people having favorable attitudes toward their preferred political parties, or inparties, along with their supporters, and negative attitudes toward other parties, or outparties, and their supporters. Originally an American concept, there is now growing interest in studying (AP) in European countries characterized by multiparty systems. So far, researchers have primarily focused on like-dislike ratings when measur…
Citizens’ intertemporal perspectives on municipal mergers and the role of deliberation for these
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 intertemporal opinions. This was done partially by tracing the development of intertemporal opinions of the jur…
Lowered Expectations and Shifting Standards? – Two Survey Experiments exploring Neo‐populist Political Scandals and the Perceived Trustworthiness of Politicians
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 ‘typical’ behavior. In this article, we explore how involvement in neo‐populist scandals affects the publi…
Political science (35 works) · Social Media and Politics (31 works) · Law (28 works) · Politics (27 works) · Law (23 works) · Public relations (20 works) · Sociology (19 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (17 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Computer Science (12 works)