| Summary: | The aim of this study is to examine explanations for why Swedish local political parties are formed. This is done by using a statistical method with a focus on first person explanations, whereas previous research either has focused on third person explanations or conducted small scale studies. Several perspectives and explanations are found in the previous literature, around which a total of seven hypotheses are constructed. To test the hypotheses, a survey is constructed and data is collected from a total of 63 founders, representing 44 of the 62 local parties that received mandates in a municipal council for the first time in either 2014 or 2018. Results indicate that difficulty to influence the established parties, disappointment aimed towards the established parties as well as a lack of attention given to topics perceived as important are all significant factors when making the decision to form a party. Contrary to previous research, factors such as anger and a desire for revenge are not found to affect the decision to form a party. Furthermore, a potential explanation for why the diffusion effects that have been documented in previous research exist, namely rational imitation, finds some support in this study. In conclusion, it is argued that the disparity within the previous research and between previous research and this study, along with theoretical shortcomings in some theoretical explanations, shows that the study of why local political parties emerge is in its infancy and that both theoretical explanations and empirical analyses could use further development.
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