Poliittisen järjestelmän evaluoinnista

Authors

• Risto Sänkiaho

Abstract

That people are linked to the political process in many ways has been proved in several studies dealing with various types of voter typologies. In many cases the input (efficacy) and the output (trust) have been used as variables in voter typologies explaining political alienation. Voters differ in their evaluations of the political process Voter political evaluations were tested in the light of data gathered from six countries (Great Britain, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, the United States and Finland). Voters were placed in six different categories on the basis of political interest, status quo/change ideology and level of ideological conceptualization. The hypotheses studied were based on the Pesonen—Sänkiaho link model (explaining people’s links to the political system) on one hand, and on the recent development of the political system (for example, the silent revolution), on the other. »Radical citizens», the most politically active group, are more closely related to political dissatisfaction and explanatory variables than other groups. The group known as »subjects», both the submissive and radical ones, are closely related to personal satisfaction in their own lives as well as to its material side and political dissatisfaction. The antiestablishment was more related to dissatisfaction, especially political action and »citizens» more closely related to the protest potential than to the conventional potential participation. According to this study, people are linked to the political process in many ways and therefore evaluations should be made among subgroups rather than keep all voters in one large group.