Distinctions and Articulations: A Discourse Theoretical Framework for the Study of Populism and Nationalism

Abstract

with details of the nature of the infringement. We will investigate the claim and if justified, we will take the appropriate steps.

The populism of the Alternative for Germany (AfD): an extended Essex School perspective

“…This distinction can be a useful one for Essex School discourse analysis especially in light of the common criticism that Laclau's theory of populism fails to adequately account for what is political but not populist (Rovira Kaltwasser, 2012;Müller, 2014). By taking into account how "the people" is constructed as a criterion for distinguishing between populist and non-populist logics, the populist/reductionist distinction takes another step away from a strictly "formalist" theory of populism (Stavrakakis, 2004) and towards greater conceptual nuance in understanding phenomena generalised all too readily as "(rightwing) populist" (Glynos and Mondon, 2016;De Cleen and Stavrakakis, 2017;Stavrakakis et al, 2017). The discourse analysis that followed applied this distinction to the case of the AfD, beginning with the discursive context of its emergence and tracing the development from "competition populism" to the uneasy coexistence of ethno-cultural reductionism with localised partial openings.…”

“…Recent work by Yannis Stavrakakis and others (Stavrakakis and Katsambekis, 2014;Stavrakakis et al, 2016;Stavrakakis et al, 2017;De Cleen and Stavrakakis, 2017) has made substantial advances in distinguishing between populist and non-populist (e.g., nationalist, nativist) elements in the discourses of parties typically labelled "right-wing populist" in terms of the centrality of the signifier "the people" as nodal point and its relation to other signifiers in the equivalential chain. This paper seeks to build on this line of work by proposing a formal distinction between populism and reductionism, whereby the latter tends to reduce "the people" onto a differential particularity that sets a priori limits on the equivalential chain, producing a tendential essentialist closure of the latter and undercutting the primacy of the logic of equivalence that is fundamental to Laclau's (2005aLaclau's ( , 2005bLaclau's ( , 2017Laclau's ( [2014) understanding of populism and subsequent empirical applications of it Howarth, 2007, 2008;Stavrakakis and Katsambekis, 2014;Stavrakakis et al, 2016;Stavrakakis et al, 2017).…”

“…It can be seen here that the equivalential chain is only extended according to membership in "the working class" or the criterion of inability to "accumulate capital" that, in turn, points back to an essential character of "the working class." 5 Whether nationalism as the construction of the people-as-nation (De Cleen and Stavrakakis, 2017) is more reductionist than populist depends on the extent to which an essentialized differential particularity is stipulated for belonging in the "nation" (or, conversely, the extent to which the signifier "nation" is empty); it is certainly possible to think of prima facie examples of civic nationalist discourses that are not predominantly reductionist (e.g., that of the 2014 Yes Scotland campaign). In other words, not all forms of nationalism are reductionist, but there are also non-nationalist forms of reductionism.…”

Critical research on populism: Nine rules of engagement

“…In stressing the profoundly political work done by populist politicians, we draw on the work of Ernesto Laclau (1977Laclau ( , 2005a and others working within the discourse theoretical tradition that affirm the 'primacy of the political' (see Panizza, 2005;Stavrakakis and Katsambekis, 2014;De Cleen and Stavrakakis, 2017). But even if we affirm the status of populism as political, we can still ask whether the concept of populism has any distinctive features comprising its conceptual morphology.…”

“…In a first move, we can say that populism entails the presence of an antagonistic relation between 'the people' and 'the elite'. In spatial or orientational terms, populism is structured around a vertical down/up axis that refers to power, status and hierarchical position (see Dyrberg, 2003Dyrberg, , 2006Ostiguy, 2009;De Cleen and Stavrakakis, 2017). However, while the antagonism is most commonly expressed in terms of 'the people' versus 'the elite', populists can rely on a wide range of labels to posit themselves as the representatives of the underdog (the 'down-group') against the powerful (the 'up-group').…”