Abstract
In recent years, research found that populism employed a new strategy by using nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, as a communication tool to persuade citizens to support their political agendas. In populist campaigns, nostalgia is used to affectively link (alleged) crises with longing for a cherished past. In this article, we applied a mixed-methods approach to understand how populists exploit nostalgia in their communication and how nostalgic rhetoric has the potential to persuade people to support their claims. In Study 1, we conducted a case study based on a qualitative content analysis of Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) online election campaign in the 2019 Thuringia election in East Germany. The analysis revealed that the campaign was built around the nostalgic narrative of the 1989 peaceful revolution as a proud historical moment for former German Democratic Republic citizens while at the same time creating a sense of crisis supposedly caused by false post-reunification politics. To further investigate the persuasiveness of nostalgia, Study 2 used a statement from the campaign and found that participants tended to agree more with populist statements if they contained nostalgic rhetoric (compared to non-nostalgic populist and control rhetoric). These findings suggest that right-wing populists can effectively exploit nostalgia and that it may ‘sugarcoat’ populist messages.
Highlights
IntroductionA sentimental longing for the past, has become an omnipresent phenomenon in popular culture
Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, has become an omnipresent phenomenon in popular culture
We will introduce the German case we investigated in two empirical studies on the uses of nostalgia in populism, starting by briefly outlining the political and historical context
Summary
A sentimental longing for the past, has become an omnipresent phenomenon in popular culture. Nostalgia is not an exclusive asset in the entertainment business and attracts notice in politics. Since the 1990s, the use of nostalgia as a political tool has become a widespread in Eastern Europe after the transition to democracy and market economy resulted in many unfulfilled promises and a longing for a better future (Velikonja, 2009). Realizing the potential of this frustration, politicians made use of the fact that post-Soviet nostalgia “[f]ueled by dissatisfaction with the present, creates and feeds the image of the perfect past” Nostalgia has proven itself to be compatible with the conservative politics of the right, defending traditions and values against change
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