The Swedish Pirate Party and the 2009 European Parliament Election

Protest or Issue Voting

Bibliographic Data

ID7973497
AuthorsGissur Ó Erlingsson (0000-0003-2323-9092), Mikael Persson (0000-0002-5377-2173)
Year2011
Volume31
Issue3
Pages121-128
Publication date2011-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3268 • E-ISSN: 1467-9256
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9256.2011.01411.x
OpenAlexW2164722065
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited15

In the 2009 Swedish European Parliament election, the Pirate Party gained 7.1 per cent of the votes. We evaluate the sudden and unexpected success of the Pirate Party by testing two competing explanations: did voters cast their votes for the party as a protest against the established parties, or can the result be explained by voters' opinions regarding the party's main political issues? Contrary to popular beliefs, empirical evidence indicates that the success of the Pirate Party cannot be explained with reference to protest voting. Rather, the most important reason why individuals voted for the Pirate Party was the importance they ascribed to the party's main political issues

General election · Group voting ticket · Instant-runoff voting · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Primary election · Sociology · Split-ticket voting · Straight-ticket voting · Voting · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Public Administration · Social Media and Politics

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