Political Fragmentation : A Case study of the political situation in Sweden through mainstream parties’ political discourse and strategies concerning a growing far-right’s presence

Abstract: This is a case study of the political situation in Sweden where a present and growing far-right has generated an outcome of political fragmentation. The process between this probable cause and outcome will be investigated to find the best possible explanation for how an isolated party could generate the outcome of political fragmentation despite their denied political participation with the other parties. The process will be analyzed through mainstream parties’ political discourse about the far-right and how they give expression for their strategies to deal with their presence. This will be done through an abductive discourse-pathway analysis, wherein mainstream parties’ dynamics towards the far-right and how it has changed over time will be analyzed. The result from the analysis showed that there are three possible outcomes when dealing with the far-right: political fragmentation, political unity and political polarization. The conclusion is that political fragmentation occurs when mainstream parties are pulled in different directions regarding what strategies to use when they ought to deal with a growing far-right presence.