Mikael Persson

MAIN RESEARCH INTEREST

My primary areas of interest are political behavior and public opinion.

CURRENT RESEARCH

In my dissertation I evaluate theories about the relationship between education and political participation. The conventional view holds that education directly increases political participation. And indeed, numerous studies show a strong correlation between education and political participation. This pattern is valid in Sweden as well: individuals with higher education participate to a higher degree in political activities. And in places where educational levels are higher, political participation is higher as well.

But is this a direct causal relationship? According to the absolute education model edcuation increase skills and knowledge that in turn increase participation. But according to the pre-adult socialization model education is just a proxy for pre-adult factors. And according to the relative education model education is just a proxy for social network position.

I evaluate these models using data from the Swedish National Election Studies, the SOM-institute and longitudinal data. The empirical analyses show support for the pre-adult socialization model and the relative education model, while the absolute education model gains no support. In an article I wrote with Henrik Oscarsson published in Scandinavian Political Studies we found small effects of education reforms. These results, in support of the pre-adult socialization model, were confirmed in another study based on Swedish panel data. Moreover, using genetic matching on data from the British 1970 Cohort Study I show that education has no causal effect, it is proxy for pre-adult factors such as cognitive ability.

In an article published in Political Behavior I show that the effect of the individual level of education is interacted with the level of education in the environment; results support the relative education model. Results from a forthcoming article in Party Politics also support the relative education model; I find that social network centrality mediates the relationship.

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In addition to the dissertation I have also done some research together with Mikael Gilljam and Peter Esaiasson on how forms of decision-making affect legitimacy beliefs and procedural fairness assessments. We have performed a number of experiments and we find that personal involvement is the main factor generating legitimacy beliefs. We have also conducted some experiments on the effects of deliberation and on legitimacy beliefs.

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I have also done some research on young voters in Sweden with Henrik Oscarsson.

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I have also been involved in some other projects: Together with Gissur Erlingsson I have studied new parties in Sweden, and in particular the Pirate Party. Mikael Gilljam and I have studied how political representatives look upon protesting citizens using data from a study of all local politicians in Sweden. However, initially my plan was to do research in democratic theory, but I have only done some work in this area.

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JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS IN ENGLISH

Persson, Mikael. (Forthcoming). "Social Network Position Mediates the Effect of Education on Active Political Party Membership." Accepted for publication in Party Politics.

Persson, Mikael. (Forthcoming). "Is the Effect of Education on Voter Turnout Absolute or Relative? A Multi-level Analysis of 37 countries." Accepted for publication in Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties.

Dahlberg, Stefan & Mikael Persson.(Forthcoming). "Different Surveys, Different Results? A Comparison of Two Surveys on the 2009 European Parliamentary Election." Accepted for publication in West European Politics.

Persson, Mikael & Maria Solevid. (Forthcoming)."Measuring Political Participation: Testing Social Desirability Bias in a Web-Survey Experiment." Accepted for publication in International Journal of Public Opinion Research. Supporting material available here.

Persson, Mikael, Maria Solevid & Richard Öhrvall.  (Forthcoming). "Voter Turnout and Political Equality: Testing the Law of Dispersion in a Swedish Natural Experiment." Accepted for publication in Politics.

Mikael Persson, Hanna Wass & Henrik Ocsarsson. (Forthcoming). "The Generational Effect in Turnout in the Swedish Parliamentary Elections 1960¿2010." Accepted for publication in Scandinavian Political Studies.

Persson, Mikael, Peter Esaiasson & Mikael Gilljam. (Forthcoming). "The Effects of Direct Voting and Deliberation on Legitimacy Beliefs: An Experimental Study of Decision-Making in Small Groups." Accepted for publication in European Political Science Review.

Esaiasson, Peter, Mikael Gilljam & Mikael Persson. (2012). "Which Decision-Making Arrangements Generate the Strongest Legitimacy Beliefs? Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment." European Journal of Political Research. 51(6): 785-808. Online Appendix.

Persson, Mikael. (2012). "Does Type of Education Affect Political Participation? Results From a Panel Survey of Swedish Adolescents." Scandinavian Political Studies. 35(3): 198-221.

Gilljam, Mikael, Mikael Persson & David Karlsson. (2012). "Representatives' Attitudes Toward Citizen Protests: The Impact of Ideology, Parliamentary Position and Experiences." Legislative Studies Quarterly. 37(2): 251-268.

Erlingsson, Gissur Ó. & Mikael Persson. (2011). "The Swedish Pirate Party and the 2009 European Parliament Election: Protest or Issue Voting?" Politics. 31(3): 121-128.

Persson, Mikael. (2011). "An Empirical Test of the Relative Education Model in Sweden." Political Behavior. 33(3): 455-478.

Gilljam, Mikael, Donald Granberg, Bengt Holm, David Karlsson, Mikael Persson & Anders Sundell. (2011). "Comparison of Web and Mail Responses in a Census of Swedish Local Political Representatives." Survey Practice, June: www.surveypractice.org.

Persson, Mikael & Henrik Oscarsson. (2010)."Did the egalitarian reforms of the Swedish educational system equalise levels of democratic citizenship?" Scandinavian Political Studies. 33(2): 135-163.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Persson, Mikael. "Is Education a Cause or a Proxy for Political Participation? Results From the 1970 British Cohort Study."

Persson, Mikael. "Classroom Climate and Political Learning:
Findings from a Swedish Panel Study and Comparative Data."

Granberg, Donald & Mikael Persson. "Religion and political participation in Sweden."

Gilljam, Mikael, Donald Granberg, & Mikael Persson. "A Proposal for an Electoral System Combining the Advantages of Party Centered and Candidate Centered Elections."

JOURNAL ARTICLES IN SWEDISH

Erlingsson, Gissur, Mikael Persson & Richard Öhrvall. (2012). "Den motvilligt engagerade altruisten: Om partimedlemskap och partiaktivism." Statsvetenskaplig Tidskrift. 114(2): 185-205.

Duus-Otterström, Göran & Mikael Persson. (2012). "Saknar vänstern respekt för individens rättigheter? En experimentell studie." Tidskrift för politisk filosofi. 16(1): 6-20.

Gilljam, Mikael & Mikael Persson. (2011). "Skolforskare med problem" Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige. 16(1): 75-77.

Gilljam, Mikael & Mikael Persson. (2011). "Skolforskning med problem: Funderingar kring en rapport om resultaten i svensk grundskola" Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige. 15(4): 279-287.

Erlingsson, Gissur Ó. & Mikael Persson. (2010). "Utmanarna: Uppkomst, idéer och opinion" Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift. 2: 229-248. 

Persson, Mikael. (2008). "Svar till Hultin-Rosenberg" Tidskrift för politisk filosofi. 12(3): 61-63.

Persson, Mikael. (2008). "Demokratins avgränsningsproblem och påverkansprincipen" Tidskrift för politisk filosofi. 12(1): 26-47.

BOOK CHAPTERS IN SWEDISH

Esaiasson, Peter, Mikael Gilljam and Persson, Mikael. (2012). "På folkets sida? Synen på demokrati bland journalister, politiker och medborgare." In Kent Asp (ed.) Svenska journalister 1989-2011. JMG: Göteborgs universitet.

Persson, Mikael. (2012). "Varför är högutbildade mer aktiva i politiska partier? Sociala nätverk som en alternativ förklaring till utbildningseffekten." In Annika Bergström, Lennart Weibull & Henrik Oscarsson, (eds.) I framtidens skugga. SOM-institutet, Göteborgs universitet.

Persson, Mikael, Maria Solevid & Richard Öhrvall. (2012). "Omvalet - en prövning för den politiska jämlikheten." In Berg, Linda and Henrik Oscarsson (eds.) Omstritt omval. SOM-institutet, Göteborgs universitet.

Esaiasson, Peter, Mikael Gilljam & Mikael Persson. (2011). "Medborgarnas demokratiuppfattningar" i Holmberg, Sören, Weibull, Lennart & Oscarsson, Henrik (eds). Lycksalighetens ö. Göteborg: SOM-institutet, Göteborgs universitet.

Erlingsson, Gissur Ó. & Mikael Persson (2010). "Varför röstade väljare på Piratpartiet?" in Oscarsson, Henrik and Holmberg, Sören (eds). Väljarbeteende i Europaval. Göteborg: Statsvetenskapliga institutionen.

Oscarsson, Henrik & Mikael Persson. (2010). "Unga väljare i Sverige 1956¿2006" In Wohlgemuth, Daniel (ed) FOKUS10: En analys av ungas inflytande. Stockholm: Ungdomsstyrelsen. Grafisk presentation av unga väljare i Sverige 1956-2006.

Oscarsson, Henrik & Mikael Persson. (2009). "Piratpartiets sympatisörer" In Holmberg, Sören & Weibull, Lennart (eds) Svensk höst. Göteborg: SOM-institutet.

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ARTICLES IN NEWSPAPERS

Amnå, Erik, Andrej Kokkonen, Mikael Persson and Håkan Stattin. "Unga svenskars stöd för demokrati är grundmurat." Dagens Nyheter, DN Debatt, 2011-06-28.

AWARDS

Award for the best paper presented at the annual Meeting of the Swedish Political Science Association in Uppsala 2008. ("Did the egalitarian reforms of the Swedish educational system equalize levels of democratic citizenship?", together with Henrik Oscarsson)

The Bertil Ohlin institute's award for best master thesis in social science 2007.

EDUCATION

Ph. D.-program, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg, 2007 -.

Master, Practical Philosophy, Lund University, 2007.

Master, Political Science, Lund University, 2006.

EXTERNAL SCIENTIFIC COURSES 

Introduction to Multilevel Models with Applications, Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection, 2009

Multilevel Analysis: Concepts and Applications, Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection, 2009

Political Socialization, Youth and Society, Örebro, 2010

European Winter School. Methodological Issues in Comparative Electoral Analysis, Nottingham, February, 2010

European Winter School. Methodological Issues in Comparative Electoral Analysis, Warzaw, February, 2011

CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS (SELECTION)

IPSA RC29 Political Socialization, Oslo, June, 2008

Youth and Politics, Bruges Belgium, June, 2008

Annual Meeting of the Swedish Political Science Association, Uppsala, September, 2008

Oxford Politics & IR Graduate Reasearch Workshop, March, 2009

General conference of the European Consortium for Political Research, Potsdam, September, 2009

Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Toronto, September, 2009

Building Bridges ¿ Political Science and Psychology, Lund, December, 2009 

Joint Session, European Consortium for Political Research, Munster, March, 2010

Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April, 2010

Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington DC, September 2010

Think Thank for European Research in Electoral Studies ¿ The True European Voter, Mannheim, May, 2010

Participatory and Deliberative Democracy in the UK, Glasgow, June 2010

Annual Meeting of the Swedish Political Science Association, Gothenburg, September, 2010

Presentation at Örebro University, Youth and Society, Örebro, November 2010

Think Thank for European Research in Electoral Studies ¿ The True European Voter, Milano, December, 2010

Presentation at the National Board for Youth Affairs, Stockholm, December 2010

Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, March, 2011

Annual Meeting of the Political Studies Association, London, April, 2011

Annual Meeting of the American Association for Public Opinion Research, Phoenix, May, 2011

Annual Meeting of the European Political Science Association, Dublin, June, 2011

Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle, September 2011

Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, April, 2012

Presentation at Lund University, Department of political science, Lund, April 2012.

Annual Meeting of the Election, Public Opinion and Parties (EPOP) group, Oxford, September, 2012.

Presentation at Copenhagen University, Department of political science, Copenhagen, November 2012.

Presentation at Uppsala University, Department of political science, Copenhagen, March 2013.

PEER REVIEWER

British Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, Political Studies, Political Research Quarterly (3), Scandinavian Political Studies.

I AM ALSO A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR TO THE SWEDISH POLITICAL SCIENCE BLOG WWW.POLITOLOGERNA.SE