Populist Strategies Research Articles

Populism and social media use: comparing the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic use of Twitter during the 2014 and the 2019 election campaigns

Populist leaders’ charisma, and their ability to connect directly with the voters, usually via social media platforms, characterize the populist communication style. This study, with its focus on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 and 2019 online election campaigns, extends our understanding of how populist leaders change their online communication strategy to seek votes during two different elections. After analyzing and comparing Modi’s tweets from 2014 with his 2019 online campaign, this study demonstrates that Modi, as a first-time contender, employed a key populist strategy of attacking opposition and elites, along with promising economic growth, in 2014. However, as an incumbent in 2019, he primarily used Twitter for self-promotion and to establish a direct connection with voters. While his attacks on opposition reduced significantly, his engagement with the mainstream media increased in the latest elections. This paper also discusses the increasing digitalization and its impact on populist communication.

Populist strategy in the European parliament: How the anti-gender movement sabotaged deliberation about sexual health and reproductive rights

ABSTRACT We add to growing research on how rightwing populism undermines democracy by identifying how populist strategy works in parliamentary democracy. We examine the fate of the 2013 Estrela Report in the European Parliament, a legislative body which used to be characterised by a high degree of respect and deliberation. This Report became an unprecedented object of ultra-conservative mobilisation, shocking MEPs by unravelling a consensus-driven status quo. We trace the downfall of the Estrela Report, and show how populist strategy entailed (1) Destroying deliberative politics by, (2) Deploying what we call ‘antagonist politics’ meant to polarize and create an impression that compromise was impossible, and (3) Employing ‘thin proceduralism’, where procedural rules were expediently used to prevent discussions about the Report. Antagonist politics polarized centrists, and mobilized politicians otherwise disengaged with the topic, while thin proceduralism became a convenient and apparently rational solution to end a seemingly emotional and unresolvable debate.

Deception in the era of digital technologies and the distortion of reality and facts: An X-Ray of Nigerian peculiarities

The phenomenal increase in the level of digital technologies has in no small measure enabled and opened new vista of possibilities that were hitherto inconceivable before the advent of these digital technologies. Indeed, this phenomenon has also increased the ‘crescendo’ of various seemingly impossible trends in the area of circulation of information in the globalised world in ways such as global rapid communication, unhindered and constant access to information, democratised production and dissemination of information and digital content, and the ability to coordinate global political activities or movements through several populist strategies and political antics employed by politicians. Currently, it is somewhat seemed intractable to separate truth from falsehood due to striking similarities in the appearance of the two. However, these phenomena have brought about untoward development resulting in the amplification of various forms of digital deceptions peddled on several digital devices. Like other countries, Nigeria, too, is battling with the rise in populism politics, fake news, ethnic nationalism (laden with ethnic jingoism), hate and dangerous speech and other kinds of digital deceptions, among others. The escalating herder-farmer communal clashes, ethno-religious crises in some states in Nigeria, a tsunami of misinformation and disinformation about COVID-19, as well as political tensions between the two dominant political parties (All Progressives Congress and People’s Democratic Party (PDP)), have been influenced by deceptions, untruths and political propaganda. Therefore, through extensive interaction with (and review of) both the extant and current literature, this paper: provides further insights into the evolving issues regarding deceptions, fake news, epistemic errors as well as democratic and social harms emanating from deceptions in the Nigerian polity. The methodology used in this paper involves a comprehensive but selective literature review conducted to locate papers (Journal articles and theses or dissertations) on the foregoing evolving issues. Also, literature related to each of the analyses of the trend of fake news and other forms of digital deceptions in the light of the emerging post-truth era and their potential impacts on the country is incorporated into the review. However, a conclusion is drawn from the findings while the paper recommends that curtailing the influence of digital deceptions and fake news on the body polity of Nigeria requires collective responsibility of all the stakeholders coupled with enhanced steps (which include but are not limited to: credibility, media skills, regulation, collaboration, media literacy, professionalism, gatekeeping, self-censorship as well as detection) towards fighting the menace and morbidity of digital deceptions in the country.

The nation of the people: An analysis of Podemos and Five Star Movement's discourse on the nation

AbstractThis article empirically explores how populist actors talk about the nation. This is a research area mostly tackled in studies on right‐wing populism, with other forms of populist politics usually left out of the analysis. To fill this academic gap, we focus on the Spanish party Podemos and the Italian Five Star Movement (M5S). The former is a paradigmatic example of radical left populism, whereas the latter is commonly considered as a catch‐all populist party with no clear ideological connotation. Through a discourse analysis on leaders' speeches and official public declarations, we focus on the role that national identity plays in the strategies of Podemos and M5S and on the type of nation they discursively construct. Whilst Podemos' populist strategy purposely aims at contending to the right ideologically loaded concepts and signifiers to construct an idea of nation fitting the party's leftist values, M5S's strategy mostly aims at appropriating valence issues, such as the “Made in Italy” brand and the concept of “national interest”. Thus, our analysis contributes to clarify the differences between the leftist political culture of Podemos and the “post‐ideological” one of M5S, as also reflected by survey data confirming strong differences in “nationalist” attitudes between their respective electorates.

Climate policy expertise in times of populism – knowledge strategies of the AfD regarding Germany’s climate package

ABSTRACT Climate policy is expected to consider the current state of science. As populist radical right parties (PRRP) become elected members of parliaments, they have a greater influence on integration processes between science and politics. The aim of the paper is to show that instead of generally rejecting climate science, PRRPs appeal to ‘alternative expertise’ and politicize scientific knowledge. With our empirical analysis of public hearings, plenary meetings and press statements discussing Germany’s Climate Package between 2018 and 2020, we show that the AfD uses expertise that suits their political interests very selectively and arbitrarily supporting either scientific outsider positions or positions that only pretend to be scientific. We argue that populist strategies weaken trust in scientific expertise by undermining democratic institutions for knowledge integration in climate governance. Therefore, a clear separation between research and politics together with transparent and formal scientific knowledge integration processes are needed.

Authoritarian Populism as a Response to Crisis: The Case of Brazil

This article demonstrates that the authoritarian populist strategy is most appealing when leaders create a sense of crisis and present themselves as having the only solution. The article underlines three performative methods of how Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil offered simple answers for a crisis and portrayed other political actors as the responsible ones to be removed. Firstly, nativism presents a conservative view on how politics should be structured by perceiving all “non-natives” as threatening. Secondly, messianism, the fetishism of Bolsonaro as a “messiah” who leads the way in the battle between “good” and “evil,” serves to reinforce the support of the Evangelist base against “PT members.” Finally, conspiracism provides an easy way to eradicate ambiguities and helps to fuel an antagonism against the “enemy.”

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Support for the German AfD: Jumping the Populist Ship or Staying the Course?

Populist parties enjoy stable support in various European countries. The literature on the rise of populism argues that this support especially increases in times of crises. Surprisingly, the German right-wing populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) did not increase its support in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the party even lost 2.3 percentage points in the 2021 federal election. We address this puzzle and ask why the AfD has not been able to use the crisis to its advantage. Our main argument in answering this question is that, although the AfD pursued the classic populist strategy of fundamental opposition, the support base of the AfD is strongly divided on the preference towards measures containing the spread of COVID-19. This division is reinforced by individual affectedness by the pandemic. Introducing a novel weekly dataset on voter preferences, we show that the AfD support base is strongly divided on the issue with approval of the government measures being a significant and substantial contributor to vote switching away from the AfD. Using regional-level data and a difference-in-differences approach, we further show that western German regions hit especially hard by the pandemic display a lower AfD vote share than other regions. Our findings have important implications for the impact of exogenous shocks on electoral competition and also on the future of populist parties.

Populist Constitutionalism in Brazil and Peru: Historical and Contextual Issues

Given populism's common practice in South America, the region provides a crucial case to identify populism as a prevalent strategy by different ideologies. The link between populism and constitutionalism is paramount because populist governments typically use constituent power and constitutional identity to reach political goals. This study aimed to provide a comparative constitutional analysis of the recent development of populism in Brazil and Peru. The first was the rhetoric and practices of Jair Bolsonaro's government in Brazil, whereas the second was Pedro Castillo's government in Peru regarding constitutional reforms and human rights issues. This comparison justified that Brazil and Peru are presidential republics where harsh political polarization shakes their societies. Bolsonaro and Castillo have anti-corruption discourses and support a new constituent process but present antagonistic economic views. This study was comparative in nature that used a qualitative approach, sourced from bibliographic and documentary research that included specialized literature on South American populism and constitutionalism and the government's plans and legislation. This study showed that both governments have difficulties executing their respective agendas on customs and constituent referendums due to governability problems and important features of the constitutional design, such as eternity clauses, judicial review, and constitutional rigidity. It concluded that the populist strategies of Bolsonaro and Castillo are different. Bolsonarism is antiliberal and promotes human rights regression, whereas Castillo's populism is conservative but democratic. In common, both face the coalitional presidentialism and constitutional protection mechanisms as constraints to putting their political goals entirely into practice.
 KEYWORDS: Authoritarianism, Constitutionalism, Fundamental Rights, Populism.

Far-right intellectual discourse about populism: the case of the German Institut für Staatspolitik

ABSTRACT Despite the ubiquity of work on the populism of the far right, explicit analysis of far-right populist strategizing and discourse about populism has been rare. This article explores such far-right reflections on populism through the publications of the German Institut für Staatspolitik, an organization at the heart of the intellectual Neue Rechte and close to parts of the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). We find a sympathetic attitude towards populism, a rejection of mainstream anti-populism and a readiness to learn from left-wing theories of populism. Whilst partially overlapping with left populist critique of technocratic neoliberalism, Neue Rechte reflections about populism are decidedly embedded within an ecosystem of far-right nationalist and anti-liberal discourse. With nationalism seen as a precondition of successful populist strategy, the far right’s innate awareness of the ‘true’ national nature of ‘the people’ is seen as giving it a winning advantage over supposedly naïve left populists unable to grasp this ‘fact’.

David Cameron, Boris Johnson and the ‘populist hypothesis’ in the British Conservative Party

Brexit was often associated with a recent upsurge of populism in Western democracies, with the idea of re-engaging with the people being construed as a populist strategy to disengage from Europe. This article seeks to explore the populist hypothesis by stepping outside the dominant literature on populism to take a closer look at Peter Mair's ‘populist democracy’ as applied to two defining moments: David Cameron’s decision to hold a referendum on EU membership and Boris Johnson’s process of implementing Brexit. Mair's notion encompasses two aspects—procedural and substantive populism—which seem to apply to both moments. While Cameron's long leadership (2005–2016) reveals changes in governing practices and party management which have altered the nature of the relationship between the leader and the ‘people’, Boris Johnson’s (2019–) more contemporary leadership can be described as an illustration of a new populist rhetoric in its combination of hard Brexit, anti-immigration and anti-Parliament discourse. Although both leaderships expose ingredients of Mair’s two variants of populism, the ‘populist hypothesis’ does not hold in the light of the type of leaders that Cameron and Johnson have actually turned out to be.

Religion in Indonesia's Elections: An Implementation of a Populist Strategy?

AbstractIn Indonesia's political strategic environment, Islamic narratives have been among the main narratives, but have not always been dominant. The 2014 presidential election displayed the beginning of a rising trend of Islamic narratives within the political context in Indonesia. Since then Islamic narratives influenced the strategy of Indonesia's populist leaders, as particularly seen during the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election and 2019 presidential election. This paper analyzes how populism as a strategy was used in recent Indonesian elections. For this purpose, it uses the conception of populism as a political strategy proposed by Weyland. Building on this approach, the paper explains the strategic adjustments made in the use of populism from 2014, 2017, and 2019 in Indonesian political events. It argues that the strategic environment faced by populist actors in Indonesia's 2019 election affected their decision to choose Islamic narratives as an instrument for mass mobilization.

Taming the People: Comparing Protests and Populism in Arab and American Politics

The rise of populism has been an uncontested global reality in recent years. However, it is unclear exactly how culturally distinct populist movements imitate or mirror each other, especially given the different rhetorical, political, ideological, and cultural contexts within which they operate. This article addresses this issue by comparing recent manifestations of populism across contemporary Arab and American contexts, with a special focus on former United States President Donald Trump’s response to the George Floyd protests and Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi’s handling of demonstrations in his country. We argue that each leader deployed common rhetorical tactics as a populist strategy to undermine the protestors’ attempts to articulate the people’s will. At the same time, our analysis shows how the different contexts in which Trump and Sisi operate also impact their ability to successfully translate their populism into political effectiveness. By conducting this analysis, our article shows how similar populist tactics across different cultural contexts may lead to divergent outcomes, revealing the importance of institutional as well as popular bases of support for would-be populist politicians.

How did a state of emergency facilitate populist strategy during the pandemic Hungary and Brazil in comparative perspective

How did a state of emergency facilitate populist strategy during the pandemic Hungary and Brazil in comparative perspective

Populist Strategies in the Political Advertising Discourse of the French National Front

This study investigates the discourse of the French right-wing political party National Front (FN) through a qualitative Critical Discourse Analysis approach examining their electoral campaign material from 2011 until 2017. The findings reveal that the FN adopts typical populist tropes and strategies to broaden its electoral base and win popular support. At the core of their discourse lie binary conceptualisations constructing an in-group (the FN, the people) and an out-group (political individuals and entities, immigrants) in a scheme of opposition, typically attributing positive qualities to the former and negative values to the latter. The linguistic construction of the Self and the Other was achieved through the use of metaphor and speech acts, in addition to other discursive strategies involving the appeal to negative emotions. In accordance with van Dijk’s ideological square, metaphors reveal a sharp polarisation in the depiction of the Self and the Other, mainly through the FN's positive self-presentation in terms of benevolent and optimistic metaphors. In contrast, the Other is mainly portrayed through war metaphors. Similarly, through the use of speech acts, the FN blames, accuses and criticises the Other, holding it accountable for the French people’s grievances, while the Self (in the person of the FN’s leader Marine Le Pen) is assertive, firm and determined in its defence of the nation and the people. Linguistic strategies are ultimately reinforced through semiotic representations, enhancing the us/them dichotomy.

The (ambivalent) far-right populist stance on the European Union with the example of the Austrian party FPÖ

This article explores the attitude towards the European Union represented by right-wing populist parties by the example of the Austrian Freedom Party. Due to the advanced stage of the European integration and a multitude of its positive and negative repercussions, far-right populist parties adopted an antagonistic rhetoric aiming at discrediting and limiting the influence of the EU in a country, they represent. The FPÖ skillfully shapes a Euro-sceptic discourse in Austria, embracing a populist strategy of manipulation and hostility. The populist itself is, however, far from offering a clear political vision. Based on the reflections on populism by Ernesto Laclau, elaborating on the far-right populist strategies of a former FPÖ’s leader Jörg Haider and finally confronting the party discourse with real political actions, this article constitutes an attempt to show the complexity of a mutual relation between populism and the European Union.

From The Front de gauche to La France insoumise: Causes and Consequences of the Conversion of the French Radical Left to Populism

Combining a variety of materials and a mixed methods approach, this article shows how the space of the French radical left has evolved since the 2000s. It outlines the transition from a Marxist to a post-Marxist ideology, and the creation of two new organizations - the Front de gauche (Left Front), which aimed to bring together the radical left, and La France insoumise (Unbowed France), which sought to federate the people using a more transversal populist strategy. The similarities and differences between the two strategies are put into perspective, from a discursive point of view and at the level of the electorate.

Are Irish voters moving to the left?

ABSTRACT The Irish party system has been an outlier in comparative politics. Ireland never had a left-right divide in parliament, and for decades, the dominant centrist political parties competed around a centre-right policy agenda. The absence of an explicit left-right divide in party competition suggested that Irish voters, on average, occupy centre-right policy preferences. Combining survey data since 1973 and all Irish election studies between 2002 and 2020, we show that the average Irish voter now leans to the centre-left. We also show that income has recently emerged as a predictor of left-right self-placement, and that left-right positions increasingly structure vote choice. These patterns hold when using policy preferences on taxes, spending, and government interventions to reduce inequality as alternative indicators. We outline potential explanations for this leftward shift, and conclude that these developments might be anchored in economic inequalities and the left populist strategies of Sinn Féin.

Roots of Contemporary Political Strategies: Ethno-Populism in Zambia during the Late Colonial Era and Early 2000s

Much scholarly work on politics in Zambia during the early 2000s stresses the role of populist mobilisations and the exploitation of ethnic language identities when explaining one of the main political developments of this period – the growing popularity of Michael Sata and his opposition party, the Patriotic Front. A common limitation of these studies is their narrow focus on the immediate context as the source of political populism and ethnic strategy. Drawing on interviews and archival and newspaper sources, this article interprets the later actions of Sata within the context of the past and demonstrates that the nature and style of the political strategies that he employed in the early 2000s were rooted in his experiences in late colonial Zambia, when he learnt the benefits of identifying oneself in ethnic language terms and engaging in worker mobilisations that were populist in character. The reappearance of ethnic and populist strategies in the early 2000s reflects a deeper connection to the past and demonstrates the long shadow of late colonial influences on contemporary Zambian politics. It also challenges the dominant periodisation in Zambian political history by drawing significant connections between different historical eras and showing how lessons learnt in one period were replicated in recognisable form in later periods.

Three Types of Culture Wars and the Populist Strategies in Central Europe

Since the ‘migration crisis’ in 2015 at the latest, the politics of a broadly conceived Central Europe has been marked by conflicts over symbols, values and norms. Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Austria, and the Czech Republic have witnessed divisive debates and campaigns over refugee quotas, women’s and gay rights, abortion laws and public monuments. As the term ‘culture wars’ was becoming ubiquitous, it remained ambivalent in its meaning and usage. The aim of this article is to identify a political logic of recent Central European cultural conflicts without leaning solely on the ideological explanation, e.g. the anti-liberal backlash thesis of Rupnik, and Krastev and Holms. By borrowing R. Brubaker’s conceptualizations of identity and populism, the article contends that it is possible to analyze culture wars as a repertoire of a populist political style. To do so, the article develops a critical perspective on culture wars, defined as polarizing conflicts in the arenas of the politics of memory, politics of identity and politics of morality. Culture wars are analyzed as a strategy of re-politicization of memory (especially of World War II), (civilizational) identity and public morality and a code used in struggles for political and cultural hegemony.

Religious populist parties, nationalisms, and strategies of competition: the case of the AK Party in Turkey

ABSTRACT Religious populism features prominently in the global political landscape. This contribution focuses on this particular type of populism, and the political strategies employed by religious populist actors, with a focus on the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, AKP) under the leadership of Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey. Although there is an established literature on religious populism, there are still dynamics that need to be studied further. How religious populists outflank their rivals, especially those with relatively conservative ideologies and understandings of nationalism, remains unanswered, for example. In this study, I investigate how the AKP, as a religious populist party, has competed with and distinguished itself from other mainstream and conservative Turkish political actors and movements, and their respective nationalist ideologies: (a) the secular political establishment, including the Kemalist Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (Republican People’s Party), (b) the tradition(s) the party was originally part of but is no longer viable, the Milli Görüş (National Outlook) movement, (c) other popular religious movements that have a claim to power (such as the Gülen, or Hizmet, movement), and finally (d) ultranationalist segments and parties such as the Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (Nationalist Action Party), each of which has their own interpretations of citizenship and nationalism.