Multi-Level Voting Behaviour in the Swedish ‘Super Election Year’

In 2014, Sweden for the first time since entering the European Union had elections to all four political tiers the same year, just a few months’ apart (European Parliament 25 May, whereas national, regional and local elections took place 14 September). The campaigning overlapped and the media reporting was blurred. Given the expectations about timing of so called second order elections, we would expect the voting to be much more similar at the two elections days than when the European Parliament election takes plays further away from a national election. However, the voting patterns differ a lot across various parties. This situation provides a great opportunity to nuance the second order election theory and explore its micro-foundations. Using the Swedish National Election Studies of 2014 (post-election after May, pre- and post-election studies for the September Elections), this paper will compare the behaviour (voting) and justifications of the Swedish electorate across the various levels. The main focus will be to investigate how and why voters behaved differently in May compared to in September, looking particularly at the variation across the electorate(s) in terms of how they voted (same or different party), the reasons given for party choice and important issues, and the specific justifications given by those who chose to split their tickets.