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Front page

Number 9 (3/2002)

Publications based on data archived at the FSD

Helena Laaksonen

Raigo Liiman: Religiousness in the changing Estonian society

Liiman focuses on whether Estonians and Russians living in Estonia differ in their religiousness and moral values - and whether this has changed since Estonia regained independence in the 1990s. He also examines whether religion strengthens Russian national identity. Liiman found that Estonians are less religious than other Europeans. Religion does not play an important part in their national identity, whereas for Estonian Russians it does.

In addition to World Value Surveys and European Values Surveys, accessed via the FSD, Liiman used several Estonian surveys and statistical and archive material from other sources.
Raigo Liiman (2001): Uskonnollisuus muuttuvassa Virossa. Tampere: Kirkon tutkimuskeskus. (Sarja C Nro 59).

Heikki Paloheimo: Voters' assessments of government or party leadership performance as an explanation for party support

In his article Paloheimo aims to answer three questions: does party allegiance still have the same importance it used to have as the explanation for party support; do voters' perceptions of government competence have a stronger impact on their party support than before; do evaluations of party leadership competence have a stronger impact on voting patterns than before. His findings indicate that there were changes in the 1990s: party allegiance diminished and voting preferences were increasingly affected by assessments of government and party leaders, but this differed from party to party. Paloheimo does not take it for granted that voters are now voting more on the basis of their government and party leader evaluations, since the past decade's recession, for example, may have affected the results.

Paloheimo used data from the Finnish Voter Barometer series.
The article was published in the Finnish journal Politiikka 44 (2): 124-143.

Tom Carlson: Circus which does not exist: personification of the Finnish voter perspective

Carlson takes Finland's reformed presidential election system as a case study to prove that political elections have not turned into a circus in which irrelevant factors determine the outcome. In his article Carlson asks whether voters nowadays give more weight to the candidates' less important characteristics, and whether the candidates' appearances on television entertainment programs, which portray their personality, have impact on voting decisions and if they do, for what kind of voter. Carlson found that voters regard candidates' competence for the office to be more important than their other characteristics. TV commercials and entertainment programs affected the voting behaviour of a small minority.

In his article Carlson used data from the presidential elections 2000 survey.
An article in the Swedish publication: Den personliga politiken (2002). Ed. Håkan Hvitfelt & Lauri Karvonen. Sundsvall: Mitthögskolan.

European parliament elections in Finland

Articles in the publication Suomen europarlamenttivaalit focus on the Finnish European parliamentary elections in 1996 and 1999. The topics include: election agendas of the parties and candidate opinions; voters' EU goals; voting and non-voting; parties' candidate selection and voting preferences; regional party support in relation to European parliamentary elections. The findings indicate that voting behaviour and preferences did not differ from other Finnish elections. Some differences were detected: the voting turnout in the 1999 European parliament elections was exceptionally low, EU elections tend to focus more on candidates and the elected candidates received a concentration of votes.

The authors used several data sets archived at the FSD.
Suomen europarlamenttivaalit (2000). Ed. by Pertti Pesonen. Authors: Sami Borg, Heikki Paloheimo, Juhani Pehkonen, Pertti Pesonen, Tapio Raunio, Risto Sänkiaho. Tampere: Tampere University Press.

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