Discursive Approaches to Populism Across Disciplines : The Return of Populists and the People

"This volume is a timely and important contribution to the manifold controversial debates about 'populisms'. The book covers populist parties in Europe, the European Union, and beyond, in the US, Australia and South America. The systematic and detailed, excellent analyses deconstruct far-right and left-wing populist utterances in many genres and contexts and thus allow for a profound understanding of these complex and intricate phenomena."--Ruth Wodak, Lancaster University, UK, University of Vienna, Austria "This is an extremely rich and much-needed addition to populism research. It provides a diverse collection of discursive approaches to populism and illuminates many cutting-edge issues like the relationship between populism and nationalism, the rubric of post-truth and the role of gender in populism. Starting from the premise that language and meaning are essential to understanding politics, Kranert has collected an astonishing ensemble of cross-disciplinary and international papers that will greatly enhance the reflexive and rigorous analysis of populist phenomena." --Yannis Stavrakakis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece This edited book presents a cross-disciplinary and international conversation about the discursive nature of 'populist' politics. Based on the idea that language and meaning making are central to the political process, the authors present research originating from disciplines such as sociology, political science, linguistics, gender studies and education, giving credence to the variety and context dependence of both populist discourse and its analysis. Using a variety of different theoretical frames, the volume examines international case studies from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, looking at different modes of populism as well as the interaction of populism with other ideologies and belief systems. The chapters draw on several disciplines, and will be of interest to scholars working in linguistics, political studies, journalism, rhetoric and discourse analysis. Michael Kranert is a lecturer in sociolinguistics at the University of Southampton, UK Acknowledgements 5 Contents 7 Notes on Contributors 11 List of Figures 15 List of Tables 17 Part I Populism as an Essentially Contested Concept in Academic and Political Discourse 19 1 Introduction: Discursive Approaches to Populism Across Disciplines 20 Populism: Approaches to a Complex Phenomenon 22 Populism as an Ideology: The Ideational Approach 24 Populism as Political Style and Repertoire 25 Populism from a Poststructuralist Discourse Theoretical Perspective 28 Political Discourse: Concepts, Methods, Approaches 30 Critical Discourse Analysis and Discourse Linguistics 31 Argumentation Analysis and Rhetoric 33 Talk in Interaction 33 Post-foundational Discourse Theory (PDT) 34 Populist Discourses: Core Questions 35 Populism and Nationalism 36 Populism and Post-truth 37 Populism and the Political Space 39 References 41 2 When Populists Call Populists Populists: ‘Populism’ and ‘Populist’ as Political Keywords in German and British Political Discourse 47 Introduction: ‘Populism’ as a Key Term in Political Discourse 47 Theoretical Approach and Previous Research 48 Methodology and Corpus 52 The Semantic Prosody of the Nouns ‘Populist’ and ‘Populism’ in German and English 54 ‘This Is Pure Populism’: Politicians’ Use of the Terms ‘Populism’ and ‘Populist’ in the Corpus 63 ‘Populism’ and ‘Populist’ Used by Journalists 65 ‘What You Call Populism, We Call Democracy’: Metalinguistic Contestations of a Political Term 68 Conclusions 70 References 73 Part II Populist and Nationalist Discourses: Links and Tensions 77 3 The Impossible Totality of Ukraine’s “People”: On the Populist Discourse of the Ukrainian Maidan 78 Introduction 78 Laclau’s Theory of Populism 80 The Impossible Totality of the Ukrainian Maidan 84 Research Questions, Methodology, and Design 87 “We Are the People” 89 Discussion 97 Conclusion 99 References 101 4 Sri Lanka Between Triumph and Defeat: Studying Populism and Authoritarianism Within Presidential Rhetoric 106 Introduction 106 Populism, Ideology and Discourse 107 Populism as Political Style 108 Studying Populism 109 Populism in Sri Lanka: Authoritarianism, Nationalism and Populist Performances 111 Populist Authoritarianism 112 Appealing to a Besieged People 113 The People 113 A Man of the People, for the People 115 The Terrorist Other 116 Discounting Domestic and Foreign Elites 117 Performing Crisis 119 Of Escalation and Violence 120 Reinventing a Resolved Crisis 121 A President of Ancient Glory 123 The Limits of Populist Authoritarianism? 124 Conclusion 125 References 127 Part III Populist Discourse and the Politics of (Post-)Truth 131 5 Trump’s Text Appeal: Vague Language in Post-Truth Politics 132 Introduction 132 Theoretical Foundations of the Study 133 Data and Method 136 Results and Discussion 137 Interpretative Strategies of Trump’s Supporters 139 Expressions of Support with no Explanation 140 Paraphrases of the Original Text 142 Modifications Involving the Time FE 143 Modifications Involving the Preventing Cause FE 145 Modifications of the Protagonist FE 147 Conclusion 151 References 154 6 Social Media and the Concept of Interpellation 158 Introduction 158 Theoretical Background 160 Methodology 165 The Case Study: A Posting by H.-C. Strache in the 2017 Election Campaign 166 Interpellation in Social Media: How Meaning Is Constructed 173 Conclusion 179 References 181 7 Archetypal Populism: The “Intellectual Dark Web” and the “Peterson Paradox” 184 Introduction 184 A Cultural (and Psychological) Phenomenon 186 The Intellectual Dark Web 187 Source Material and Multi-Layered Analysis 188 My Position in this Analysis 190 Affective Mythology and Archetypes 190 Political Diversity Beyond the “Gated Institutional Narrative”? 191 “A Glitch in the Matrix” and the Peterson Paradox 194 The Liberal Shadow? 196 Jungian Individuation and Peterson’s Persona 198 Brand and Peterson: Under the Skin Podcast 200 Accusations of Victimhood 203 Conclusion: Populism, Archetypes and Murmurations? 204 References 207 8 On the Retreat of Liberal Values and Access to Discourse: Extending Post-Foundational Discourse Theory 212 Dramatic Shifts in Public Perception 212 Bulgaria: The “Invasion” of Gender 214 Following Up on the “Rise of Populism” Thesis 215 A Second Wave of “Cognitive Mobilization”? 217 Introducing Post-Foundational Discourse Theory 218 Discourse Theory in a World of Polycentric Discourse Production 220 Enter the Discursive Social Actor 221 New Media and Political Identity-Making Beyond the Elites 223 Circulation of Discourse and Access to Discourse 226 Conclusions 229 References 232 Part IV Populist Discourse and Discourses of Gender and Sexuality 237 9 On Behalf of the Family and the People: The Right-Wing Populist Repertoire in Croatia 238 Thinking and Researching Populisms 240 Citizens and People’s Referendum vs. Not-of-the-People Government: Exploring the Vertical Antagonisms in OBF’s Mobilizing Discourses 245 Exploring Horizontal Antagonisms in OBF’s Political Discourse 252 Conclusion 256 References 258 Part V Populist Discourse as Left-Wing and Right-Wing Political Discourse 262 10 Populism and Nationalism in Jeremy Corbyn’s Discourse 263 Introduction 263 Background I: The “People” in Populism and Nationalism 264 Background II: Corbyn and Left-Wing Populism 268 Theoretical Basis and Research Questions 270 Data 272 Analysis 273 Conclusions 287 References 290 11 Using Mass and Pop Culture to Dominate Political Discourse: How the Left-Wing Party Podemos Conquered Spanish Living-Rooms with IKEA 294 Introduction 294 Populism in Spain: Genesis and Rise of Podemos 296 Constructivism and Discourse Analysis as Theoretical and Methodological Frameworks 298 A Manifesto Designed like an IKEA Catalogue: A Reflection of the Zeitgeist 301 Lessons from IKEA 301 A Creative Adaptation: Podemos’ Manifesto 306 Conclusion 315 References 318 12 Republican Populism and Marxist Populism: Perspectives from Ecuador and Bolivia 322 Theoretical Framework 322 Methodological Approach 325 Towards Victory: Building Collective Identities as an Electoral Strategy 326 The Bolivian Populist Strategy 327 The Ecuadorian Populist Strategy 330 Which Differences Matter? 333 Governing Through Populist Discourses and Populist Strategies 334 Populist Governments and the Conservation of the People’s Identity 334 Conclusions 339 References 344 13 The (Re) Birth of Far-Right Populism in Australia: The Appeal of Pauline Hanson’s Persuasive Definitions 347 Introduction 347 Populism as Style and Ideology 348 The Significance of Hanson’s Far-Right Populism 350 Persuasive Definitions 351 Data 352 Dissociation 354 Reframing 358 Floating Signifiers 361 Definitions by Effect 365 Conclusion 368 References 370 Part VI Populist Discourse Across the Political Spectrum 374 14 Caught Between Populism, Elitism, and Pluralism: A Method for Political Discourse Analysis 375 Introduction 375 A Multidimensional Approach 376 Semiotic Analysis 378 A Method for Analysis of Speeches 382 Analysis 383 Who Is the “Real” US Populist? 386 Obama 386 Trump 388 Sanders 389 Conclusion 390 Three Kinds of Populism in the UK 390 Farage 391 Johnson 392 Corbyn 393 Conclusion 394 Three Full Populists in The Netherlands 395 Wilders 395 Baudet 396 Roemers 396 Conclusion 397 Discussion and Conclusion 397 Appendix A: Analysed Political Speeches 400 Appendix B: Sub-scores of the Analysed Speeches 402 References 406 15 Populism as Mainstream Politicians’ Political Style During the 2012 Greek Election Campaign 410 Introduction 410 Mainstream Populism as Political Style 412 Bad Manners and Conversational Violence 413 (Mainstream) Populism as Political Style and Mediated Populism 416 Data and Method 417 Challenging the Journalists’ Knowledge or Conduct 418 Extract 1 418 Extract 2 421 Responding to a Question with a Question3 423 Extract 3 423 Extract 4 426 Discussion 428 Appendix: Transcription Glossary 431 References 432 16 Another Populism Is Possible: Popular Politics and the Anticolonial Struggle 437 Introduction: Who Is Afraid of Populism? 437 Populism: Three Characteristics and Their Southern Contestations 438 Art and Popular Culture: Demo-Crazy 445 “Culture Be Teacher”: Traditions of Collective Governance 449 Songs of the People: Freedom Songs 453 Conclusion 458 References 460 Index 465