Parties, Candidates and Citizens On-Line - Åbo Akademi

The Finnish context
As was briefly mentioned in the introduction, Finland has several important
characteristics to keep in mind when studying candidate level electoral competition on the
internet. These characteristics are discussed in detail in the following section.
The basic prerequisite for web campaigning during elections – a high level of
internet penetration – has long been fulfilled in Finland (cf. Norris 2000). In 1999,
roughly one third of the 5.2 million population was on-line, a share which by mid 2002
had risen to 52 per cent 1. Where parties and candidates in many countries are still so-tospeak
‘learning the ropes’ of internet campaigning, the Finnish political actors should be
relatively familiar with the medium. In fact, as stated by Gibson and Römmele (2005: 10),
Finland, alongside the USA and Germany, is a world-leader in terms of internet use by
political candidates. Concerning voter impact, research findings suggest that there seems
to be a growing potential for catching the next generation of Finnish voters (e.g.
Bengtsson & Grönlund 2005; Borg & Moring 2005; Moring 2003). The share of young
voters (18-34 years) – a voter segment all Finnish parties regard as a part of their target
groups (Moring 2003: 18) – ranking internet sources as most important in making their
voting decision has already risen from 10 per cent in the 1999 parliamentary election to
over 30 per cent in the 2003 election. In 2003, internet sources were even ranked above
traditional sources for election information, such as TV and newspapers by the same
young voters (ibid.: 18-9). The internet is starting to move beyond the status of a ‘second
order campaign medium’ when considering its impact on the elections in Finland.
The 200 seats of the parliament are contested once every four years in the Finnish
parliamentary elections. The MPs are elected from 15 districts where the district
magnitude is based on the population size in each district. Consequently, more seats in
parliament are allocated to the larger districts. The districts are quite different in nature,
ranging from the highly urbanized and crowded Helsinki area to the rural and sparsely
populated northern and eastern parts of the country. The MP seats are distributed
between the parties using the d’Hondt system 2 of party list proportional representation
(Sundberg 1997; Taagapera & Shugart 1989: 31-2). Furthermore, compared to other
European countries, and of special interest in studying candidate campaigning, the
Finnish elections are candidate-centred, as votes are cast for the candidates and not the
party (Carlson 2006; Ruostetsaari & Mattila 2002). The elections are not only a
competition between parties but a competition between individual candidates (Sundberg
1997: 72). Many candidates also have their own support groups which organize campaign
activities, raise funds and try to increase publicity for the candidate (Ruostetsaari &
Mattila 2002). According to Gibson (2004), such candidate-centred systems spur
individual innovation and dynamic use of political websites. Candidates and parties are
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