Accommodation och affektiv polarisering på elitnivå - En teoriprövande och teoriutvecklande studie av vänsterorienterade mainstreampartiers relation till invandringskritiska nischpartier

Sammanfattning: Is it possible for a left-wing mainstream party to use the strategy Accommodation against an anti immigrant niche party, at the same time as its leaders experiences Affective Polarizing against the same party? A coexistence might seem incompatible, since Accommodation describes how a party decreases the policy differences to another party, while Affective Polarization on elite level captures the negative emotional attitude and distance to another party. Drawing on Meguids theory of Accommodation, and previous research on Affective Polarization on elite level, I examine the possibility of coexistence of the two phenomena in a qualitative and theory-developing case study of the Swedish Social Democratic party’s (Socialdemokraterna) relation to the Sweden Democrats (Sverigedemokraterna) 2010-2022. By comparing immigration policies expressed in the two parties election manifestos, as well as analyzing affective polarization ques in the Swedish Social Democratic party’s elections speeches, this study proves that the two phenomena can coexist. The result contributes to the literature on Accommodation theory as well as Affective Polarization theory.