MODERATION OR RADICALISATION? : A thematic analysis of the populist rhetoric of the Sweden Democrats and the Finns Party

Sammanfattning

The aim of this thesis was to study how the rhetoric of the populist parties the Sweden Democrats and the Finns Party evolved over time in regards to the five pillars of populism: anti-establishment, nationalism, morality, immigration and non-politics. This was done by conducting a thematic analysis of the manifestos of the parties through a theoretical framework consisting of three populist theories (the ideational, discursive and the communicative). While all five themes were mainstays in the rhetoric of the both parties some themes were more radicalised than others. In the case of the Sweden Democrats, the morality theme was initially one of the most radical themes but became, after the 2000s, more of an auxiliary theme. In general, a slight moderation of the rhetoric was observed in the case of the SD, while much of the core contents remained. The Finns Party followed an inverted process as their rhetoric got more radical, in particular towards immigration. This thesis provided some insight to the process of moderation and radicalisation for populist parties. Seemingly it reinforced the Laclaudan notion that populist rhetoric undergoes constant rearticulation (in large part due to contextual factors) of form and style while the core content remains more or less the same.