Är dagens debattklimat ett hot mot demokratin? : En kvantitativ studie av hur debattklimatet i svenska TV-sända partiledardebatter har förändrats över tid.

Sammanfattning

There is a long tradition of televised election debates in Sweden, especially during election years. To aim to help voters navigate among different political issues they need to achieve a certain level of respectfulness. Otherwise, they will risk leading to mistrust and reduced legitimacy for the political system which could harm the democracy. This paper has investigated if political incivility has changed over time in Swedish televised election debates. This has been done by examining the change in number of interruptions, number of personal attacks and number of interruptions made by the debate leader. The study is based on three different Swedish election debates during 2017, 2021 and 2025. The conclusion from the study is that there has been a change in how party leaders behave in election debates, primarily based on the change in number of interruptions made by the debate leader as well as the number of personal attacks. However, the change in number of interruptions was smaller. The analysis concludes that there is an increasement of uncivilized behavior in debates which based on previous research could be problematic for democracies. The study thus indicates the importance of a conscious respect of the format and rules that govern the debates.