Abstract
Despite the widespread sense that backlash is an important feature of contemporary national and world politics, there is remarkably little scholarly work on the politics of backlash. This special issue conceptualises backlash politics as a distinct form of contentious politics. Backlash politics includes the following three necessary elements: (1) a retrograde objective of returning to a prior social condition, (2) extraordinary goals and tactics that challenge dominant scripts, and (3) a threshold condition of entering mainstream public discourse. When backlash politics combines with frequent companion accelerants – nostalgia, emotional appeals, taboo breaking and institutional reshaping – the results can be unpredictable, contagious, transformative and enduring. Contributions to this special issue engage this definition to advance our understanding of backlash politics. The special issue’s conclusion draws insights about the causes and dynamics of backlash politics that lead to the following three potential outcomes: a petering out of the politics, the construction of new cleavages, or a retrograde transformation. Creating a distinct category of backlash politics brings debates in American politics, comparative politics, and international relations together with studies of specific topics, facilitating comparisons across time, space, and issue areas and generating new questions that can hopefully promote lesson drawing.
Highlights
Despite the widespread sense that backlash is an important feature of contemporary national and world politics, there is remarkably little scholarly work on the politics of backlash
When backlash politics components combine with frequent companion accelerants – nostalgia, emotional appeals, taboo breaking, and institutional reshaping – the results can be unpredictable and transformative
To be a concept with its own value added, backlash politics needs to be more than a counter-reaction to a specific set of circumstances; it must be a politics with its own specific dynamics that work in similar ways, following its own logics, across different contexts
Summary
Despite the widespread sense that backlash is an important feature of contemporary national and world politics, there is remarkably little scholarly work on the politics of backlash. A backlash mobilisation strategy converts into backlash politics once a movement constructs a retrograde imaginary, challenges dominant scripts, and when these efforts become common elements of public discourse and public life. Because backlash movements are challenging elements of dominant scripts, they are likely to generate a counter-reaction, at least when they reach the threshold of entering public discourse.
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