Party Identification

Abstract

This chapter discusses party identification of the Finnish electorate in the 21st century. In the beginning of the chapter, the contested concept of party identification is focused. In empirical analyses, questions from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) are used as proxies for party identification. During the last two decades, the party system has realigned, but the share of party identifiers has not decreased, rather the opposite. Both sociodemographic variables and some attitudinal value orientations have been used in explaining party identification to political parties. Left-right self-placement is a strong predictor of most political parties analysed, with the exception of Swedish People’s Party and Christian Democrats, the former having Swedish language, the latter religiousness as the strongest predictor of party identification. Identification to traditional values is a strong predictor of identification both to the Finns Party and to Christian Democrats. Identification to multicultural values is a strong predictor of identification to National Coalition Party, Greens and Swedish People’s Party. On equality-related values, the Left Alliance and the National Coalition Party represent polar opposites, where voters with pro-equality identify themselves to the Left Alliance and voters with opposite views to the National Coalition Party.