Understanding Contemporary Populism: Populism as a Political Style

Moffitt, Benjamin

doi:10.11126/stanford/9780804796132.003.0003

Cited by 116 publications

(192 citation statements)

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“…Additionally, such right-wing narratives are characterized by the systematic identification of the “native people” with the figure of oppressed “victims,” which is simultaneously a “sacred” category (for more details, see Arteaga Botello 2021 ; Binder 2021 ; Morgan 2021 ). Finally, RPAs usually attribute themselves to the “sacred” category of “heroes” in an attempt to self-legitimize themselves as representatives of the “people’s will” (on which, see Freistein and Gadinger 2019 ; Kaya and Tecmen 2021 ; Moffitt 2016 ; Wodak 2015 ). Rather than overcoming a mimetic crisis and constructing more optimal forms of competitive solidarity, RPA’s imitative competition desacralizes and antagonizes it, as RPA permanently cultivate a state of constant war by searching for new scapegoats within the community.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These are designed to legitimize the positions of specific sociopolitical actors and delegitimize the positions of their opponents. Scholars (Wodak 2015 ; see also de Cesari and Kaya 2021 ; Moffitt 2016 ; Taggart 2000 ) suggest that right-wing populists continuously construct a sense of crisis, provoking the fear that elites and the cultural Other and narrowing civil solidarity (Alexander 2021 , p. 2). At the same time, right-wing populists desacralize democratic human rights, speaking on behalf of “impersonal” symbolic objects, such as “people” and the “majority,” creating preconditions for the conflict-producing mimesis and heroization of the perpetration.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Appropriating the civil sphere: the construction of German collective identity by right-wing populist actors during the Covid-19 pandemic

Zavershinskaia

2023

Am J Cult Sociol

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This paper considers the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on right-wing populists’ constructions of German collective identity. In their “Covid-19 crisis” narratives, German populists attempted to rearrange the discursive and institutional space of the German civil sphere through a symbolic inversion of the heroic signifier and legitimization of violence against perceived enemies. To analyze such discursive dynamics, this paper utilizes multilayered narrative analysis, drawing on the synthesis of civil sphere theory, the anthropological conceptualization of the relationship between mimetic crisis and symbolic substitution of violence and the sociological narrative theory of the sacralization and desacralization of heroism. This analysis structures the investigation of positive and negative symbolic constructions of German collective identity by German right-wing populist narratives. The analysis shows that although German right-wing populists are politically peripheral, their affective, antagonistic and anti-elite narratives contribute to the semantic erosion of the liberal democratic core of the German civil sphere. This in turn reduces the ability of democratic institutions to control violence and leads to the restriction of civil solidarity.

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Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Appropriating the civil sphere: the construction of German collective identity by right-wing populist actors during the Covid-19 pandemic

Zavershinskaia

2023

Am J Cult Sociol

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“…If they achieve power, like Rawlings, they attempt to build new and alternative institutional channels to encourage popular mobilisation. Finally, Moffitt (2016: 51–2) argues that in electoral populism the leader is the single most important actor, while in revolutionary populism political performances tend to be more collective. The main reason for this, Morgül (2019) claims, is that unlike populist party leaders who tend to get plenty of national media coverage during electoral campaigns, revolutionary populists cannot usually rely on the mass media to directly address distant audiences.…”

Section: Politics Of Populism In Africamentioning

confidence: 99%

Revolutionary populism and democracy in Ghana

Haynes

2022

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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The article examines two decades of Jerry Rawlings’ rule in Ghana. It seeks to explain why Rawlings’ revolutionary populism did not develop in the direction that he envisaged: a new kind of popular democracy. Instead, Rawlings oversaw the reintroduction of Ghana's popularly preferred political system: ‘Western-style’ multi-party democracy, despite his avowed intention of not doing so. To what extent was this outcome surprising or puzzling? The article explains that it was neither surprising nor puzzling as Rawlings’ regime, the PNDC, lacked the capacity to introduce a radical new political system, despite his desire to do so. His aim – to craft a new kind of popular democracy – was not achievable as both internal and external opposition forces were stronger in their desire for multi-party democracy and a neo-liberal economic system.

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“…There is no consensus as to whether 'far-right populism/populist right-wing extremism' is an ideology (thin or thick; Kriesi and Pappas, 2015: 5), a philosophy (Priester, 2007: 9), a specific media phenomenon (Pajnik and Sauer, 2017), a strategic (Salzborn, 2018) or a specific political style (Moffitt, 2017;Brubaker, 2017: 3) that manifests mainly in performance and communication.…”

Section: Populismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Entering the ‘Post-Shame Era’: The Rise of Illiberal Democracy, Populism and Neo-Authoritarianism in EUrope

Wodak¹

2022

The Limits of EUrope

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The term 'illiberal democracy', coined by Fareed Zakaria in 1997, has gained much traction, specifically since its use by Hungarian Prime Minster Victor Orbán in 2014. Ever since, Orbán and his governing party Fidesz have been implementing this vision resulting in major cutdowns on free speech, freedom of press, of various NGOs which support human rights, and so forth. Moreover, Fidesz won the 2018 national election with a strong focus on anti-immigration policies. Although Orbán's restrictive migration policies were widely criticised during the so-called refugee crisis 2015, many EU member states have started to follow the Hungarian policy of closing borders and protecting the EU from asylum-seekers and an alleged invasion by Muslims. I claim that formerly taboo subjects and expressions in mainstream discourse are being accepted more and more ('normalisation'). Such normalisation goes hand in hand with a certain 'shamelessness': the limits of the sayable are shifting regarding both the frequency of lies and the violating of discourse conventions -as well as regarding repeated attacks on central democratic institutions. Normalising the assessment of migrants as a threat to inner security and a burden on the welfare state and education system must be perceived as an international development -generally instrumentalising a 'politics of fear'. {have trimmed this -please check}

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Understanding Contemporary Populism: Populism as a Political Style

Cited by 116 publications

References 0 publications

Appropriating the civil sphere: the construction of German collective identity by right-wing populist actors during the Covid-19 pandemic

Appropriating the civil sphere: the construction of German collective identity by right-wing populist actors during the Covid-19 pandemic

Revolutionary populism and democracy in Ghana

Entering the ‘Post-Shame Era’: The Rise of Illiberal Democracy, Populism and Neo-Authoritarianism in EUrope

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