The main purpose of this study is to examine celebrity candidates in the European Parliament election in Sweden and Finland. The theoretical background assumes that candidate voting is beneficial in the election to the European Parliament. Previous research also shows that there are some opponents towards candidate voting, claiming it personalizes politics and it might lead to celebrities getting elected simply because they are well known to the voters. This study is a comparative analysis and analyzes the differences between Sweden and Finland when it comes to celebrity candidates. Furthermore, Max Weber’s theory on leadership will be used to categorize the celebrity candidates further. Weber’s ”rational leader” and ”charismatic leader” can today be referred to as the competent politician and the celebrity. The identified celebrity candidates in Sweden and Finland will thus be categorized as whether they are also competent politicians. The result of the analysis shows that celebrity candidates are fairly common in Finland but barely exists in Sweden. However, not many of these candidates actually get elected; only one celebrity candidate from Sweden and four from Finland. All but one is considered to be both charismatic and competent. The conclusion is that celebrity candidates do not get elected based only on them being a celebrity. They also have to be considered competent leaders. However, being a charismatic and personal candidate is getting more and more important as politics are becoming more personalized, but simply being a celebrity will not get you a seat in the European Parliament.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-42241 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Eliasson, Emelie |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för statsvetenskap (ST) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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