ABSTRACT
In recent years, much scholarly attention has been devoted to the rising levels of affective polarization around the world. Finland has traditionally been considered as a country with a consensus-oriented political culture and in international comparisons, Finland ranks low in affective polarization. However, recent research suggests that polarization might be increasing in Finland as well. In this chapter, we examine developments in party affect for the five most recent Finnish elections and seek to understand differences in polarization both at an aggregated ideological level and at the individual level. In doing so, the chapter examines central factors associated with affective polarization and explores what they can tell us about the apparent increase in affective polarization taking place in Finland. The chapter finds that affective polarization has, indeed, increased over time across all ideological camps, but that there are substantial differences in polarization levels between supporters of different parties. Furthermore, strong ideological positions are the most important predictors of affective polarization.
