The Measurement of Affective Polarization in a Highly Ideologically Polarized Context: Legislative Speeches in the Swedish Parliament 1973-2026

Contemporary research has shown that affective polarization is highly present in almost all democracies in the world and it has grown during recent years. These studies have mostly focused on the electorate through quantitative methods based on survey data and little attention have been given to the political elite, although these studies also indicate a clear presence of affective polarization. The elite studies have, however, rarely distinguished between ideological and affective polarization, leading to results that may exaggerate the levels of affective polarization. Moreover, legislative speeches are seldom in focus of these studies. In contrast, this paper takes a qualitative approach to studying affective polarization at the elite level using Sweden as a case, analyzing party leader debates in the Riksdag between 1973 and 2026. The article makes three contributions to the field of research. Firstly, it develops an analytical framework to distinguish ideological from affective polarization, in which the context of the statements plays a decisive role. Secondly, it shows that affective polarization occurs in waves, where the parliamentary debates today do not stand out in comparison with previous periods. Thirdly, it shows that affective polarization takes on different forms in different historical periods.