Far-right Populist Research Articles

The politics of platform folklore: Emotion, identity, and sense-making in far-right populist Twitter communities

Platforms are increasingly part of everyday life, but they remain opaque and impenetrable spaces for most users. To manage life on platforms, users thus need to engage with sense-making practices that help them understand and navigate online spaces. This paper studies how far-right populist activists interpret and navigate their presence on Twitter, using the concept of platform folklore, that is, unofficial and collective narratives aimed at relieving feelings of uncertainty associated with the opacity of platforms. The data consists of 20 life-history interviews with Swedish and American Twitter activists from right-wing populist communities, who all participated in populist Twitter debates. The analysis shows how platform folklore is constructed not only based on observations of content moderation, as emphasized in previous research, but also in correspondence with the political ideology and identities of the activists. This led them to interpret Twitter as a leftist organization that disfavored them, which stopped them from developing strategies to reach the goals they held as central to their Twitter activism. The paper concludes by discussing the role of emotions and ideology in platform folklore within political communities and suggesting directions for future research.

A path forward: social democratic strategies and responses to far-right populist challenges

ABSTRACT Social Democratic parties have been in crisis across Europe in recent decades. The once dominant party family has struggled to adapt to the structural challenges of post-industrialization, changes in its core constituency, and increased political competition from alternative parties. This article analyzes the welfare chauvinist shift embraced by some Social Democratic parties to assess its viability as an electoral strategy in response to this changing political landscape and far-right party challenges. The article analyzes individual-level data from 26 European countries from successive European Voter Survey rounds for 2014 and 2019. This article tests the relationship between voter positions on government intervention, redistribution, and immigration and support for Social Democratic parties. Issue salience data is also examined to identify the importance granted by the public to different concerns over time. Despite claims that welfare chauvinist approaches represent a path forward for Social Democrats, this research finds that this strategy is not a broad winning formula. Rather there are incentives for Social Democrats to return to their egalitarian and progressive roots on key socioeconomic and sociocultural issues.

A primer on trade and inequality

Abstract Economists have generally underplayed, until recently, globalization’s role in exacerbating inequality in the advanced economies. But in the public imagination, globalization’s adverse effects have loomed much larger, significantly contributing to the backlash against the political mainstream and the rise of far-right populism. The literature on trade and inequality is in fact exceptionally rich, with important theoretical insights as well as extensive empirical findings covering recent experience. In these comments, I will summarize a few key takeaways.

Party Politics in Austria: From Proporz to Populism?

Abstract Party politics in Austria has two distinctive features: institutionalized power sharing between the two main parties, known as Proporz, and a longstanding tradition of far-right populism. I examine whether these two phenomena are connected: Does reduced political competition correlate with vote shares for the far right? The results do not support the hypothesis that populist parties are stronger in places with reduced political competition and with Proporz institutions. Instead, the results show that Austrian populism has very deep historical roots. Historical party preferences in the 1930s explain a substantial part of the variation in far-right populist vote shares across Austrian regions today. Populism may also have economic consequences. Descriptive evidence shows that economic growth was 2 percentage points lower in Austria when far-right populists were in the national government, whereas no partisan differences can be found for the two main parties.

Our Culture Is Best! Populist Engagement with Culture in the Construction of the Populist Myth

ABSTRACT The recent populist upsurge has dramatically transformed political, social and cultural realities, and the end of its success is not yet in sight. Adding to the scholarly work on the political and socio-economic determinants of populist success, this paper analyzes how populism and culture work together in constructing and propagating the populist myth. Concretely, it theorizes the interaction between populism and culture in narrating the people’s suffering of an existential crisis, and the populist leader’s identification with the people through a shared cultural narrative. As the example of French far-right populism shows, this manifests in two interconnected ways: on the one hand populism uses concrete cultural products to shape their dichotomous rhetoric, while on the other hand its articulation in society affects our understanding of who can (and cannot) culturally belong. The concept of equaliberty is introduced to further reflect on the democratic challenges posed by populist narratives, as well as consider the potential of inclusionary counter-narratives. To this end, the notion of artivism is presented as a mode of engagement that can bring the worlds of art and politics together, serving as a creative laboratory to produce equaliberal alternatives to populism.

“Ireland for the Irish”

This article argues that the political campaigning on Twitter of two far-right parties during the 2020 Irish General Election worked to disseminate far-right populist tendencies through their discursive use of conservative geopolitical imaginaries of Ireland. The material harvested for this study consists of 631 original tweets posted by the official Twitter accounts of The National Party and the Irish Freedom Party during the period of January 14 – February 8 2020. Using thematic analysis, this article argues that much of the Twitter content of these two parties centred around three central themes: anti-establishment, anti-immigration, and evoking Irish history. Uniquely, permeating all four themes of the political parties’ accounts are discourses of “patriotism” which configure much of their social media rhetoric as part of an “Ireland for the Irish” geopolitical imaginary. From this analysis, we argue that the National Party and Irish Freedom Party not only disseminated their nationally-specific far-right agendas in their tweets during the 2020 General Election, but that they did so through using geopolitical imaginaries and rhetoric that are reminiscent of far-right populist movements more broadly across Europe and the US in order to rationalise their movement and legitimise their conservative geopolitical imaginaries of Ireland.

Education, perceived discrimination, and identity voting: evidence from Brazil’s 2018 election

ABSTRACT Brazil’s electoral arena has long been characterized as devoid of identity politics. Recent analyses, however, have uncovered shifting racial subjectivities and effects of race and gender on electoral preferences. This paper leverages Brazil’s 2018 election to reassess conventional wisdom and test whether recent findings derived from racial groups extend to other subordinate social groups in this context, namely women and sexual minorities. I test two hypotheses: (1) that higher levels of education correlate with greater perceptions of group-based discrimination, and (2) that perceptions of group-based discrimination explain within-group variation in support for Bolsonaro. Analysis of national survey data show that education correlates with group consciousness among subordinate groups, and that these individuals are more likely to oppose the far-right populist candidate. This article provides a more complete understanding of the electoral salience of identity in the Brazilian context, and provides evidence that insights derived from one marginalized group can extend to others.

Populist conspiracy myths in far-right terrorist manifestos: A transnational perspective

In recent years, there has been a notable rise in the electoral success of far-right populist movements in various Western countries, coinciding with an alarming increase in far-right terrorist attacks. While far-right populists seek to attain power through democratic means, their rhetoric has inadvertently fostered an environment conducive to the growth of extremist ideologies. This article delves into the manifestos published by far-right extremists from the United States, Germany, Norway, and Australia, illuminating how these manifestos mirror and amplify the narratives espoused by far-right populists. Beyond sharing common conspiracy myths, these terrorists often reference one another and populist politicians in their manifestos, further showing the entanglement between far-right populism and extremism. This paper undertakes a discourse analysis of these terrorist manifestos, probing into how right-wing extremists make use of conspiracy myths promoted by the populist right-wing. As far-right terrorism increasingly threatens peaceful coexistence, it becomes imperative to conduct new research that assesses the role of conspiracy myths in fueling terrorism and devises strategies to avert further radicalization.

The (Re)surgence of Sinophobia in the Australian Far-Right: Online Racism, Social Media, and the Weaponization of COVID-19

ABSTRACT In this article I critically examine the role of the Australian far-right in the racialisation of the COVID-19 pandemic. A Discourse-Historical Analysis of (n = 133) Facebook posts from Australia’s most prominent far-right populist party, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, revealed a range of discursive strategies, linguistic and rhetorical devices, and multimodal semiotic practices were employed to scapegoat China and Chinese-Australians throughout the pandemic. The findings highlight the unique role played by the Australian far-right in the racialisation of the health crisis which engendered a wave of Sinophobic and anti-Asian racism on a global scale. This research furthers our empirical understanding of how crises are exploited by the far-right to advance their racial politics in the twenty-first century.

Far Right > Digital Rights: The Precarity of Free Expression, Internet Access, Net Neutrality and Data Privacy in Bolsonaro’s Brazil

The election of Jair Bolsonaro to the Brazilian Presidency in 2018 was a politically destabilising event with far-reaching consequences. The fate of digital rights in Brazil was particularly impacted, with the legacy of the celebrated Marco Civil da Internet rights charter called into question. By examining the many ways that the fragile gains of the Marco Civil were corroded during the Bolsonaro presidency – including systematic attacks on freedom of expression online, disinformation campaigns, the violation of network neutrality through zero rating, and the continuing assault on privacy rights – we can understand the multi-pronged nature of Bolsonaro’s assault on the public sphere in Brazil as well as the inadequacy of digital rights in safeguarding against the conjoined threats of platform capitalism and far-right populism.

The nature, causes, and consequences of inter-regional inequality

AbstractSocial scientists and policymakers alike have become increasingly concerned with understanding the nature, causes, and consequences of inter-regional inequality in economic living conditions. Contemporary spatial inequality is multi-faceted—it varies depending on how we define inequality, the scale at which it is measured, and which groups in the labor force are considered. Increasing economic inequality has important implications for broader social and political issues. Notably, it is difficult to account for the rise of far-right populism in industrialized countries without considering the context of growing inter-regional inequality. Important explanations for the rise in inter-regional inequality include changing patterns of worker and firm sorting processes across space, major transitions like the reorientation of the economy from manufacturing to digital technologies, and increasing global economic integration, as well as policy. Different causal explanations in turn imply a different role for place-based policy. This article introduces the context of the special issue on the nature, causes, and consequences of inter-regional inequality, focusing specifically on inequality in North America and Western Europe, and aims to identify challenges for, and spark further research on, inter-regional inequality.

A tale of multiple crises: Populist and non-populist narratives in European institutions from the Great Recession to the 2024 European elections

In the past decade, the strength of populist forces, especially those of the far right, has grown considerably in Europe, influencing European politics and modifying the composition of European institutions, and in particular the European Parliament. This essay posits that populist and non-populist narratives in EU institutions have evolved through the dynamics of polarization and reciprocal influence across multiple crises, from the start of the Great Recession in 2007 to the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022. Depending on the results of the upcoming 2024 European elections, and especially in the case of a successful outcome of far-right populist parties, there might be more radical changes in the dominant forces and discourses of EU institutions.

Why Didn’t Brazilian Democracy Die?

ABSTRACT Brazil, for many scholars and pundits, showcased the risk of democratic breakdown with the election of a far-right populist like Jair Bolsonaro. Against pessimistic expectations, however, not only has Brazilian democracy survived but politics has returned to business as usual. What can explain this supposedly unanticipated outcome? This article provides an analytical assessment of this this puzzle and offers an alternative explanation. We argue that both the diagnoses of Brazilian institutions and the predictions made were misguided. We explore the role played by the Supreme Court, party system, media, and congressional politics in restricting Bolsonaro’s illiberal initiatives.

The far right in Spain: An ‘exception’ to what? Challenging conventions in the study of populism through innovative methodologies

ABSTRACT The ‘exceptionalism’ of Spain’s lack of far-right populism has come to an end with VOX. This has spurred a debate that has converged upon another exceptionalism, that of Catalan secessionism, as the explanation of support for VOX. Challenging this consensus, this article revisits extant data to question the conclusions of past studies, framing their limitations within broader trends in populism studies that must be problematised. This problematisation is done through an innovative application of Essex discourse theory to mass-level data gathered in in-depth interviews with low-income VOX voters. The results propose a different interpretation of the success of VOX that links deprivation and values to economic policy, which had been previously discarded by studies framing VOX as exclusively ‘cultural’. Building on this analysis, this paper speaks more broadly to populism studies by proposing innovative methods, by transcending dominant conceptual schemes, and by indicating a need for alternative forms of theorisation.

Does Health Vulnerability Predict Voting for Right-Wing Populist Parties in Europe?

Abstract: Introduction: A recent article by Kavanagh et al. (2021) in American Political Science Review suggested that health vulnerability predicts voting patterns for the populist far-right. Aim: We sought to distinguish socioculturally conservative from antielite voting, expecting health vulnerability to predict only the former. Methods: We combined data from the European Social Survey (round 7) with the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (2014). We preregistered several other hypotheses regarding associations between health and voting and predetermined the smallest effect size of interest (SESOI: r = .05). Results: Health vulnerability did not predict socioculturally conservative voting, and the results for antielite voting were mixed. To investigate why our result differed from Kavanagh et al.’s, we reran their analysis employing covariate specification curve analyses. The statistical significance and the direction of the association between health vulnerability and voting depended on which covariates were included. Across 1,000 models with randomly drawn covariate specifications, 59.6% showed a positive, 29.8% a zero, and 10.6% a negative association between health vulnerability and voting for far-right populist parties. However, all effect sizes were more consistently smaller than our predetermined SESOI. Conclusions: Our study illustrates the necessity of causally justifying and preregistering all covariates and predetermining an SESOI.

Alternative für Deutschland: rhetoric against migrants as a threat to democracy in Germany

The field of this artice is the far-right populist AfD party in the context of anti-immigrant rhetoric. I intend to establish to what extent the anti-immigrant agenda and activity can pose a threat to democracy in Germany. The field of research is the ideological background of the AfD. I intend to show what the anti-immigrant arguments stem from and what their boundaries are. In conducting research I adopted the main hypothesis according to which: far-right and populist AfD displaying anti-immigrant rhetoric are increasingly going beyond the boundaries of free speech to extremisms that undermine the constitutional order in Germany. The AfD aims to destabilise the democratic landscape by, among other things, building support for anti-immigrant attitudes.

Humor, Ridicule, and the Far Right: Mainstreaming Exclusion Through Online Animation

This paper critically examines the use of online humor and ridicule to promote and normalize far-right exclusionary discourses. Through a critical qualitative study of the Please Explain miniseries, a series of thirty-four short web cartoons produced by Australian far-right populist party, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, we explore the strategic use of humor in the communicative arsenal of the contemporary far-right. Drawing on critical discourse analysis and thematic analysis, we examine how humor is used to soften articulations of exclusionary and supremacist ideas, including racism, misogyny, and queerphobia. Our findings suggest that the frivolity and irony of the online animated genre works to stretch the boundaries of the sayable, potentially making the content more palatable to non-far-right audiences. We argue that the strategic use of exclusionary humor forms part of a wider project of far-right discursive mainstreaming that simultaneously (re)legitimizes everyday expressions of exclusion.

Shift in Public Opinion Formations on Defense, Energy, and Migration: The Case of Russia’s War Against Ukraine

Abstract Russia’s war on Ukraine came as a shock to the Western world. In this context, the study of public opinion change is crucial for understanding the dynamics of political attitudes and societal polarization. Using Germany as an exemplary case study, we investigate how public opinion changed regarding defense, energy supply, and migration as three crucial policy domains in the first year of the war. Using a representative eight-wave online panel survey study, we map attitudes in the general population and among supporters of different parties, tracing their development over time. Our analyses lead to two key insights: First, attitudes toward defense, energy supply, and migration remained remarkably stable over time. Second, we found a high degree of consensus across the partisan spectrum. Only the supporters of the far-right populist party systematically diverged from the general population, and this discrepancy grew larger over time. Our findings contribute significantly to the understanding of political attitude formation and processes of social polarization along cleavages in times of abrupt societal change.

Far-right populism in alt-tech: A challenge for democracy?

This article examines how far-right communities in alt-tech platforms depict and engage with the values of democracy. The study contributes to the ongoing discussion on the impact of far-right populism on democracy and the role of alt-tech social media as an enabling platform for such ideologies. Through applying the concept of polyarchal democracy as an analytical framework, the article conducts a case study of Australian alt-tech communities to explore discourses of democracy. The dataset comprises of text-centric social media posts from the Telegram and Gab platforms during the 2022 federal election period. The findings reveal that, overall, far-right populist discourses in alt-tech communities predominantly support the processes of democracy and uphold most (though not all) of its values. Understanding these discourses is crucial for safeguarding liberal democracy in a context of rising illiberalism.

Measuring Receptivity to Eurosceptic Media Discourses in the Vicinity of War: Evidence from Romania

Ever since its accession to the EU, Romania was considered an exceptional case among member states, given the unwavering high levels of popular support for the EU. However, the most recent elections held in Romania brought about the unexpected emergence of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), a far-right populist party that strongly opposes the European project, which it accuses of resembling “a harmful hegemony.” The war in Ukraine represented another chance for AUR to bash the EU for its reaction in supporting Ukraine. The current article examines the degree to which anti-EU appeals of AUR influence Eurosceptic attitudes in Romania. In doing so, the present research pursues two distinct, but complementary goals. The first is to perform a content analysis of Eurosceptic narratives disseminated by AUR through its main social media channels since the start of the war. The second goal is then, employing four logistic regression models and using unique data collected through an online interactive survey, to test which of these narratives matter the most in shaping Eurosceptic attitudes. The article allows us to develop a nuanced understanding of what triggered a change of heart in a significant part of the Romanian electorate vis-à-vis the EU and the influence of Eurosceptic media discourse in this sense.