The Swedish Local Voter

Sweden is the only country in Europe that consistently holds local, regional and national elections on the same day, introduced at the 1970 elections. Critics of the system have claimed that this makes it difficult for citizens to distinguish between the three elections. In spite of this, ticket splitting, i.e. choice of different parties at local and national levels, has gradually increased – from 6 percent in 1970 to 30 percent in 2014. There may also be a fair amount of voters who make independent assessments in each of the elections, but still prefer the same party. However, as no studies have been carried out on these matters in Sweden we do not know how common local voting is or what characterizes the local voter. This paper aims at investigating the Swedish local voter – the extent of local voting and the local voters’ characteristics – and its consequences for local representative democracy. To what extent do voters make a separate choice for the local elections? How well-informed is the elector in local matters? What is the basis for its choices? The paper will draw on theories on representative democracy and democratic accountability. Empirically, the study is limited to the four northernmost counties in Sweden and the 2010 elections. There is no reason to expect that local voters in northern Sweden are different than others. A hitherto unanalyzed data set, consisting of survey data from a representative sample of citizens, will be analyzed. The survey was carried out just after the 2010 elections and contain questions about voting choices in each of the elections, together with extensive information about the knowledge on issues and candidates in the different elections and of other types of choices that the voters have made. The survey had a response rate of 64 percent.