Politicization of religion in the Swedish Riksdag since 2000

This paper deals with the topic of a potential politicisation of religion in the Swedish parliament and therefore an ignition of the religious-secular cleavage. Due to a highly pronounced separation of state and church Sweden is seen as one of the most secularized countries in the world. This view is supported by recent surveys that show a continuing decline in the importance of religion in everyday life. This contrasts with the increase of public debates about, for example, Islam in the public sphere or the increase of migration to Sweden by people from other religious backgrounds. The paper relates to the concept of issue attention in party competition analyzing the amount and framing of statements that refer to the public role of religion(s) in plenary debates. The objective is to examine whether and to what extent there has been a resurgence of the religious-secular cleavage. Furthermore, the role of certain contextual factors, such as the rise of the populist Sverigedemokraterna party, will be examined. In the paper quantitative and qualitative content analysis where used to examine the amount of debates and party statements relating to religion as a domestic policy issue since the beginning of the 21st century and to uncover a possible development of party positions and issue ownership over time.