2022, Vol., No.30

Journal of the Scandinavian Society of Korea 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.21

pISSN : 1229-8646
https://journal.kci.go.kr/jssk

The study argues that the Swedish parliamentary election of 2022 is related to major long-term changes in Scandinavian and European politics in general. Therefore, the aim is to analyze long-term changes in Swedish politics over time, in relation to significant short-term changes due to the Swedish parliamentary election of 2022. The study describes the Swedish party system and the election campaign preceding the 2022 Swedish parliamentary election as well as the short-term changes, relative to the previous election, that this election brought with it. The study also describes important long-term changes in the Swedish party system since the 1980s. In relation to these changes, starting in the 1950s, the study describes the increased mobility of Swedish voters and the decline of voting along the social class cleavage as dealignment. Moreover, the study addresses the ideological changes of voters along the subjective left-right scale, the economic left-right dimension, and the libertarian-authoritarian dimension in relation to the concept of realignment. In conclusion, the article shows the need to study the long-term processes of dealignment and realignment to be able to understand the transformed party system that became so clear in the 2022 Swedish parliamentary election.

Election interference poses a threat to nations around the world. Potential negative effects include depressed public participation in the political process and elections, artificially exaggerated polarization among different groups in society and a decrease in trust among voters for the election system and in the long run, democracy itself. While different forms of interference in the election process is not a new phenomenon, the advent of the Internet has facilitated interference via digital means, originating either outside the nation’s borders or from within. Sweden is no exception to being a subject of attempts of election interference, even though its election system is generally regarded as trustworthy and of a high standard. This study focuses on the 2022 Swedish election and the perceived threats of electoral interference via digital means, as well as claims of interference having taken place, as discussed in Swedish media. The results show that while Swedish media reported on both threats ahead of the election, as well as claims of different forms of interference having taken place, the integrity of Sweden’s election system seems to have remained intact. Of primary concern are issues that can be connected with attempts of interference that have a domestic angle, pertaining primarily to the spread of disinformation online about alleged election fraud.

The Swedish elections in 2022 made international headlines first because of the breakthrough of the Swedish Democrat. This far-right populist party is now the second largest party, but also because of the 3 per cent drop in the 2022 elections compared to the previous parliamentary election of 2018. Voter turnout is a strong indicator of functional democracy and essential for the legitimacy of the democratic system. Therefore, from a normative perspective, a small drop should be the cause of concern. The article, therefore, aims to explain this surprising drop. By relying on descriptive and exploratory statistics, our preliminary analysis confirms in times of crises, turnout became lower because of the negative impact of uncertainty and degenerated life conditions.