Liberalism or Barbarism - A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Swedish state’s discourse on the matter of ‘violence affirming extremism’

Abstract: The term ‘violence affirming extremism’ has become the dominating way of describing political violence in Sweden. This thesis aims to analyze the construction of the discourse that centers at this term, how it affects the social context in Sweden and what possible purposes could found for this discourse for the Swedish state. The material of this thesis is therefore primarily governmental reports, on which a framework of Critical Discourse Analysis is applied. This method is used in order to analyze the discourse on both textual, social and abstract levels. The theoretical framework applied on the material is of Marxist and Marxist feminist character that conceptualize agency, antagonism and state ideology. The theoretical framework underpins and complements the methodological implementation. This thesis finds that that the construction of the discourse centers at legitimacy, essentialism, politics and moral. These notions emerge in the material as part of the construction of the dichotomy that places liberal, rational society on the one hand and irrational disorder on the other hand. The thesis therefore concludes that the purpose of the discourse for the Swedish state can, through a Marxist perspective, be understood as the sustainment and cementing of the liberal status quo.