Right-wing Populist Discourse Research Articles

Authoritarian populism in Brazil: Bolsonaro’s Caesarism, ‘counter-trasformismo’ and reactionary education politics

ABSTRACT In this paper, we examine the rise of authoritarian populism in Brazil following the election in 2018 of Jair Messias Bolsonaro to the Presidency and reflect on the consequences of his far-right-wing politics for education. Our focus is broadly on three historical blocs (with five different presidents of the Republic) which make up the policy trajectory of Brazil over the period 1995–2019. We explore the complex cultural political economy surrounding more than a decade of left-wing government by Lula da Silva (2003–2010) and Dilma Rousseff (2011–2016) of the Workers Party (PT). In what has been described as simultaneously a tragedy, a farce, and a soap opera, Bolsonaro’s rise involves the impeachment of Dilma, accusations of corruption, the imprisonment of Lula and the resignation of multiple ministers of the government. The intersections of right-wing conservative discourse, evangelical proselytising and populist discourse in Brazil, coupled with resentment from those whose fortunes had been diminished because of declining economic competitiveness, contributed to the election of Bolsonaro in 2018. A final section focuses on the education policy in Brazil, the ways in which any progressive gains have been erased and what this means for Brazilians.

Children as an Object of the Right-Wing Populist Politics and Discourse in Poland

In Central and Eastern Europe populist regimes are attracting attention as a result of the traumatic legacy of communism, the subsequent overburdening reforms and exhausting systemic transformation, resurgence of ever-lurking nationalism, regional conservatism, parochialism and cultural chauvinism, and/or as an example of the structural shortcomings of young democracies at the borders of civilization. The subject literature also indicates numerous and universal elements of populist governments, present as well in this part of Europe. Without prejudging the aptness and strength of these various concepts and arguments, this article is an attempt to include in these wideranging themes a particular issue that absorbs conservative populists, namely “childhood” and “children”. While the problem of children in politics has already received numerous interpretations, the importance of childhood in the right-wing populist discourse and politics has so far remained an issue discussed only occasionally. We put forward the thesis that children play an important and specifi c role in the right-wing populist superstructure – they constitute an illusory picture of the nation, an allegory of its renewal, as well as a convenient, though inconsistently used, instrument for achieving political, ideological and propaganda goals. Attitudes towards children can be an important characteristic of populism as such, and should be taken into account in research on the subject. We will illustrate these problems using the example of Poland and the populist Law and Justice (PiS) Party that is in power there now.

Transfeminist politics and populist counterattacks in Italy

ABSTRACT The article examines the Italian political sphere in order to highlight how populist discourses are, among other things, a reaction to feminist and transfeminist practices and theories. The article begins by examining the emergence of right-wing populist discourses and their link to the reproduction of a hegemonic masculinity and the patriarchal family. Then it analyses several discourses promoted by transfeminist movements – especially Non Una Di Meno [Not One Less] – focusing in particular on the emergence of the term “transfeminism” in Italy and its use in political practices. Ultimately, the article questions the possibility of building alliances and collective political subjects, starting from the challenge to the female subject brought about by transfeminism. The article claims that populist policies in defence of the traditional family do nothing but co-opt the language of liberation movements while demanding adherence to the status quo, and that transfeminist theories are the clearest response to these same populist politics. Indeed, feminism and transfeminism dispute the rhetoric of a unitary and coherent people, starting by their questioning universality in the name of partiality.

Casual, Colloquial, Commonsensical: A News Values Stylistic Analysis of a Populist Newsfeed

ABSTRACT This study explores a mediated variety of right-wing populist discourse in the digital context, given the populists’ inclination to bypass legacy media to connect directly to the citizens to garner political support. It analyzes a sample of the Tea Party’s newsfeed headlines posted in the spring of 2019. A corpus of 308 headlines collected according to a “constructed week” formula has been coded first according to selected news values parameters (Bednarek and Caple 2017), and then with respect to stylistic devices operationalized in terms of “casual,” “colloquial” and “commonsensical” expressions. Methodologically, the study aims to combine the perspectives of newsworthiness and stylistics in order to offer a protocol for the analysis of (right-wing) populist styles regarding the genre of party newsfeeds that use headlines to cultivate prospective supporters. The conducted exploratory analysis finds that, notwithstanding the high incidence of Proximity and Personalization characteristic of popular media appeals, the construction of newsworthiness is mainly done through Negativity, Eliteness, Unexpectedness and Impact. Moreover, populist outlets strive for the stylistic alignment with the target audience’s assumed affective and cognitive preferences for news representation though manufacture of informality, authenticity and entertainment.

Instrumentalization of emotions and emotion norms: migration issue in European Right-Wing Populist Discourse

ABSTRACT This paper studies how emotional expressions of enmity and their meanings conveyed by negative emotions against migrants are used by right-wing populists to provide the emotional pattern that makes their potential electorates unite around them. It takes Germany and its Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party as its case study and focuses on the AfD’s emotional expressions of enmity towards migrants/refugees -like labelling all of them as “terrorists” and “criminals”- in its party campaign visuals including catchy slogans along with disturbing visuals. The paper argues that these visuals are used to reinforce and complement the emotion norms of amity like solidarity and unity between “pure Germans” and the AfD as their claimed representative against the “others”. The analysis conducted here suggests that the AfD instrumentalizes migrants both in domestic politics as perpetrators of economic, societal, and security-related threats and in relations with non-EU countries as objects of fear and terror.

Neo Zionist right-wing populist discourse and activism in the Israel education system

ABSTRACT Over the past decades, neo-Zionist discourse has gain prominence in Israel. This approach, which gives preference to the definition of Israel as a Jewish state over its definition as a democracy, is a specific version authoritarian populism. This paper explores how educational discourses, policies and curricular changes are being shaped by right-wing populist organization and politicians to strengthen New-Zionism, while delegitimising liberal-democratic values. The paper draws on three examples. The first focuses on the campaign to ban the activist groups ‘Breaking the Silence’ – a group of army veteran who collect testimonies on Israel’s misconducts in the occupied territories – from entering schools. The second example is the case of ‘Im Tirtzu’, a right-wing organization, and their campaign against left-wing influences in the academy. A third example focuses on the changes to the compulsory civic curriculum – an example to the ways in which education is used to perpetuate a particular notion of Jewish nationalism. These cases help reveal the reactions of academic institutions to such actions, and the partial acceptance they have gained in recent years. They also show how the boundaries of the political were redrawn and the role education policy and institutions play in delegitimizing left-wing critique.

Discursive (re)construction of populist sovereignism by right-wing hard Eurosceptic parties in the 2019 European parliament elections

Abstract The overarching aim of the article is to investigate the discourse of populist sovereignism as articulated by the leaders and/or leading candidates of four right-wing hard Eurosceptic populist parties in the following countries during the 2019 elections to the European Parliament: the Czech Republic, Italy, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. The political parties investigated are Freedom and Direct Democracy, League, People’s Party Our Slovakia and Brexit Party. Using the analytical tools of Critical Discourse Analysis and drawing on the concept of populist sovereignism, the study investigates how right-wing Eurosceptic populist sovereignism was discursively (re)constructed by right-wing hard Eurosceptic parties during the 2019 EP elections across the four cases. As such, the inquiry brings fresh insights as it looks at right-wing populist discourse through the sovereignism perspective, thus complementing the literature on populist mobilization that focuses on grasping the linkage between populism and sovereignism.

Migration and Recent Aspects of Right-Wing Populist Discourse in Europe

Intensifying migration processes in the West are reflected in certain changes in the discourse of European right-wing populist and nationalist parties. Along with anti-mass migration sentiments, rhetoric of these political forces demonstrates new elements related to the topics of the clash of civilizations (Huntington), as well as civilizational solidarity - the ideas of civilizationism (Brubaker). In the context of global transformations and changes in the ethno-cultural landscape of the continent, European nationalists became less prone to tradition for their ideology thesis of intra-European animosity. On the other hand, it tend to rhetorically transform, and usually extend, the boundaries of imagined community of the European fortress, which needs to be defended. Principal dichotomy of todays European right-wing populist rhetoric is represented by the secular post-Christian community (us) and seemingly archaic and fundamentalist migrant community from Muslim countries (the others).

Investigating the Syrian “Other” in Donald J. Trump’s Twitter Campaign Rhetoric

AbstractThis study investigates the discursive techniques and processes employed by Donald J. Trump to portray Syrian refugees as a negative out-group and threat in tweets during his 2016 election campaign. The article argues that this anti-immigration argument facilitated and materialized not only as a right-wing populist discourse but also as an actual policy as evidenced by the travel ban of 2017. The data are comprised of 32 tweets from Trump’s personal Twitter account between his first available commentary tweets on the Arab Spring situation in November 2011 and his inauguration in January 2017. The article employs the Ideological Square (van Dijk 1992, van Dijk 1995, van Dijk 2013) and proximization theory (Cap 2008, Cap 2010, Cap 2013) to study how Donald J. Trump employs an ideological “othering” of Syrian refugees and constructs threatening representations of them as a political agenda to set himself apart from competitors and advance his election campaign.

Right-Wing Populist Discourse on Chinese Social Media: Identity, Otherness, and Global Imaginaries

The past few years have seen the emergence of a right-wing populist discourse on Chinese social media that combines the claims, vocabulary, and style of right-wing populisms in Europe and North America with previous forms of nationalism and racism in Chinese cyberspace. In other words, it provokes a similar hostility towards immigrants, Muslims, feminism, the so-called ‘liberal elites’, and progressive values in general. This article examines how, in debating global political events such as the European refugee crisis and the American presidential election, well-educated and well-informed Chinese internet users appropriate the rhetoric of ‘Western-style’ right-wing populism to paradoxically criticise Western hegemony and discursively construct China’s ethno-racial and political identities. Through qualitative analysis of 1,038 postings retrieved from a popular social media website, this research shows that by criticising Western ‘liberal elites’, the discourse constructs China’s ethno-racial identity against the ‘inferior’ non-Western other, exemplified by non-white immigrants and Muslims, with racial nationalism on one hand; and formulates China’s political identity against the ‘declining’ Western other with realist authoritarianism on the other. We conclude by conceptualising the discourse as embodying the logics of anti-Western Eurocentrism and anti-hegemonic hegemonies. This article 1) provides critical insights into the changing ways in which self/other relations are imagined in Chinese popular geopolitical discourse; 2) sheds light on the global circulation of extremist discourses facilitated by the internet; and 3) contributes to the ongoing debate on populism and the ‘crisis’ of the liberal world order.

European Union, populism and religious minorities: complex entanglements

ABSTRACT Research shows that, overall, the EU has a positive impact on the respect of religious diversity in the multi-level European system and that religious minorities have a positive attitude toward the EU. This positive, albeit limited, impact may be endangered by the rise of the right-wing populist discourse which, as many scholars have shown, targets minorities, and religious minorities in particular. The purpose of this article is to explore the role that populism plays in the EU-orientation of religious groups. Drawing on the case study of Italy, the analysis shows that the majority of religious groups take a stance against populism and promote inter-religious solidarity, and that while most religious groups perceive that the EU has a positive role to play, their action is specially oriented at the local level.

The toilet debate: Stalling trans possibilities and defending ‘women’s protected spaces’

As one of the few explicitly gender-separated spaces, the toilet has become a prominent site of conflict and a focal point for ‘gender-critical’ feminism. In this article we draw upon an AHRC-funded project, Around the Toilet, to reflect upon and critique trans-exclusionary and trans-hostile narratives of toilet spaces. Such narratives include ciscentric, heteronormative and gender essentialist positions within toilet research and activism which, for example, equate certain actions and bodily functions (such as menstruation) to a particular gender, decry the need for all-gender toilets, and cast suspicion upon the intentions of trans women in public toilet spaces. These include explicitly transmisogynist discourses perpetuated largely by those calling themselves ‘gender-critical’ feminists, but also extend to national media, right-wing populist discourses and beyond. We use Around the Toilet data to argue that access to safe and comfortable toilets plays a fundamental role in making trans lives possible. Furthermore, we contend that – whether naive, ignorant or explicitly transphobic – trans-exclusionary positions do little to improve toilet access for the majority, instead putting trans people, and others with visible markers of gender difference, at a greater risk of violence, and participating in the dangerous homogenisation of womanhood.

Fighting Fire with Fire? “Muslim” Political Parties in the Netherlands Countering Right-Wing Populism in the City of Rotterdam

Abstract This article explores the emergence of Muslim-majority political party DENK in Dutch politics by focusing on two encounters before the 2018 local elections in Rotterdam. It explains the circumstances of DENK’s rise and success and argues that social media plays a central role. By analysing social media data, the author demonstrates that the party counters right-wing populist discourse by making use of the local context and particular on- and offline strategies. In addition, the article shows that a novel development is taking place concerning Muslim political participation in the Netherlands, which is part of a broader trend in Western Europe.

In the name of the people: The populist redefinition of nature conservation in post-crisis Spain

The global surge of right-wing populism and its impact on environmental policies are attracting the attention of political ecologists. However, little of this debate has reached the nature conservation literature. In this paper, I explore the emergence of populist logics in conservation as a result of the entrenchment of neoliberalism after the 2008 economic crisis. On the one hand, neoliberalism has incited the roll-back of public institutions that hitherto monopolised the management of protected areas (PAs), as well as the roll-out of market-based and network-based forms of PA governance. At the same time, it has also had a significant impact on rural communities, imposing austerity policies that have caused a great deal of social and economic precarity and vulnerability, generating feelings of abandonment, dispossession and disenfranchisement. To illustrate how these two phenomena intersect and motivate the surge of right-wing populism in conservation, this paper dissects a number of parliamentary debates on a recent policy reform that seeks to decentralise the management of PAs in Asturias, a region in the north of Spain. These debates brought together stakeholders and members of several rural groups with different political orientations and views, including public administrators and policy-makers, farmers and livestock breeders, farmers’ unions, landowners, tourism business owners, hunters and academics. I analyse how right-wing populist discourses framed this policy change, scapegoated the public management of conservation for all the problems suffered in rural areas, and co-opted popular demands of rural communities, reducing them to the economic interest of private landowners. I will also describe the various attempts made to negotiate a left-wing, progressive democratic alternative that hinges on the recognition of the social complexity of rural communities and the diversity of problems that affect them. The paper ends with a reflection on the lessons that the critical studies of conservation and public participation can learn from this negotiation.

Critical discourse analysis in political communication research: a case study of right-wing populist discourse in Australia

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to showcase critical discourse analysis (CDA) in political communication research through an empirical case study of right-wing populist discourse in Australia. It is argued here that critical discourse analysis is a valuable resource for the field of political communication for understanding an increasingly complex media and communication environment. The article serves as a worked example for communication scholars looking to apply critical discourse analysis in a political context. As such, it provides a detailed overview of the theoretical underpinnings of critical discourse analysis, its significant approaches and their shared tenets. The case study of Australian Senator Pauline Hanson’s 2016 maiden speech provides a step-by-step account of the processes involved in conducting a critical discourse analysis, including the strengths and limitations of this approach. The paper contributes to the growing calls within the field for a deeper engagement with qualitative and critical approaches.

What Drives the Right-Wing Populist Vote? Topics, Motivations and Representations in an Online Vox Pop with Voters for the Alternative für Deutschland

Abstract In a recent study (Miglbauer, Marlene and Veronika Koller (2019). “‘The British People have Spoken’: Voter Motivations and Identities in Vox Pops on the British EU Referendum.” Veronika Koller, Susanne Kopf and Marlene Miglbauer, eds. Discourses of Brexit. Abingdon: Routledge, 86–103.), we investigated vox pops (short for ‘vox populi,’ i.e. ‘voice of the people’) with self-declared Leave voters in the run-up to the 2016 British EU referendum. The study presented here complements this research with a comparative perspective, exploring the motivations expressed by voters for the German right-wing populist party AfD (Alternative für Deutschland). On the day of the 2017 general election, the German news website Zeit online (ZON) invited its readers to say why they voted AfD. Although the AfD voter profile and the ZON readership profile are noticeably different, the question elicited 468 replies numbering a total of around 59,000 words, which we compiled into a corpus. Working with corpus analysis software AntConc 3.4.1w, we first prised out topics and motivations by analysing this collection of online vox pops for word frequencies as well as collocates and concordances for selected lexical units, before manually grouping the different lexemes into ten topics. In a second step, we manually analysed the data for social actor representation (van Leeuwen, Theo (2008). Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.) and appraisal (Martin, James R. and Peter R. R. White (2005). Appraisal in English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.). The results of the analysis show that next to previously documented motivations for right-wing populist votes – e.g. in-group bias and rejection of the Other as morally deficient (Heinisch, Reinhard (2008). “Austria: The Structure and Agency of Austrian Populism.” Daniele Albertazzi and Duncan McDonnell, eds. Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European Democracy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 67–83.) –, the group of AfD voters represented in the written vox pop have specific additional reasons, namely a focus on German chancellor Merkel as an ‘anti-hero’ and a belief of being victimised by the media. An additional, unexpected finding was that a number of posters to the dedicated comment forum explicitly distance themselves from perceived stereotypes of right-wing populist voters. Our findings therefore also problematise previously identified characteristics of right-wing populist discourse as anti-elitist and anti-intellectual (Wodak, Ruth (2015b). The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean. Los Angeles: SAGE.) and call into question the support from workers, and associated fears of wage pressure and competition for welfare benefits, as one of the main factors in the success of right-wing populism (Oesch, Daniel (2008). “Explaining Workers’ Support for Right-Wing Populist Parties in Western Europe: Evidence from Austria, Belgium, France, Norway, and Switzerland.” International Political Science Review 29.3, 349–373.).

Putting Our Own People First: The Content and Effects of Online Right-wing Populist Discourse Surrounding the European Refugee Crisis

The 2015 refugee crisis has sparked heated polarized debates throughout the globe. Yet, to date, we know too little about the discursive framing of the refugee crisis by various actors on online media, and the effect of right-wing populist messages on stereotypical images of refugees. The extensive qualitative content analysis reported in this paper (Study 1, N = 1,784) shows that the framing of populist politicians and citizens overlap in the problem definitions. However, citizens attribute more responsibility to refugees themselves and perceive that the native people are relatively deprived. Traditional news media are more divided. Overall, tabloid media define refugees as a problem, and broadsheet media frame them as victim. The second experimental study (N = 277) demonstrates that messages that blame immigrants for increasing crime rates activate negative stereotypical images of migrants among people with stronger perceptions of relative deprivation. These messages have the opposite effect among citizens with weaker perceptions of relative deprivation. These findings provide important insights into the political consequences of anti-immigration framing. Online media discourse is generally one-sided, and exposure to anti-immigration messages may polarize the electorate in opposing camps.

Racism and Brexit: notes towards an antiracist populism

ABSTRACTThis article takes Brexit and Nigel Farage’s right-wing populism as a starting point to consider the populist politics of racism and antiracism. I demonstrate how two key figures of right-wing populist discourse – the “white working class” and the “liberal elite” – have come to describe a political grammar with a widespread influence and explanatory resonance across the political spectrum, and which have as a result formed a racial common sense in Brexit Britain. Rather than accept the terms of a debate that has been set by the populist right, I draw on Ernesto Laclau to describe a rival politics of antiracist populism. Although it is far from straightforward to navigate, engagement on the terrain of the popular is not optional if we are to counter a fatalistic tendency to conceive of antiracism as a minority or elite concern.

Right-wing populist discourse on Chinese social media: Identity, otherness, and global imaginaries

Right-wing populist discourse on Chinese social media: Identity, otherness, and global imaginaries

Europe versus Islam? Right-wing Populist discourse and the construction of a civilizational identity

Europe versus Islam? Right-wing Populist discourse and the construction of a civilizational identity