Populist Discourse in Venezuela and the United States : American Unexceptionalism and Political Identity Formation

Using the conceptual framework of populism as discourse, Ritchie Savage provides a comparative analysis of U.S. and Latin American speeches and articles covering Betancourt’s Acción Democrática, Chávez, McCarthyism, and the Tea Party. In so doing, he reveals an essential structure to populist discourse: reference to the "opposition" as a representation of the persistence of social conflict, posed against a collective memory of the origins of democracy and struggle for equality, is present in all cases. This discursive formation of populism is carried out in comparisons of political discourse in the United States and Venezuela, two countries that are typically classified as empirically specific in their economic and political development and ideological orientation. __Populist Discourse in Venezuela and the United States__ explores how instances of populism, once exceptional phenomena within modern forms of political rule, are becoming increasingly integrated with the structure of democratic politics. Contents 6 Chapter 1: Introduction 7 What Is Populism? 8 Case Selection 10 Research Methodology 12 Between Movements and the State, the Rational and the Irrational 13 Bibliography 19 Chapter 2: The Negative Proof of the Discursive Model: Populism as a Conceptual and Empirical Problem 20 Introduction 21 Dislocation and Terrain 22 Epistemological Contours 24 Populism and Latin America 27 Populism in the United States 32 Populism in Western Europe and Other Comparisons 33 Laclau 36 Discourse Theory, the Unconscious, and Social Movements 38 Conclusion 39 Bibliography 42 Chapter 3: From Betancourt to Chávez: Interpreting Venezuelan Populism in Two Revolutionary Governments 44 Introduction 45 Populist Discourse During the Trienio Period of AD Rule 48 The Populist Discourse of Chávez and the Chavista Movement 53 Antonymy, Fantasy, and Collective Memory 57 Further Comparisons Between Trienio AD and Chávez in Historical Context 60 Conclusion: The Royal Road of Populism 68 Bibliography 73 Chapter 4: Anti-Leftist Populism in McCarthyism and the Tea Party 76 Introduction 77 McCarthyism in the Populism Literature 79 The Tea Party in the Media 80 Overcoming the Conceptual Dilemma of Populism 82 Discursive Applications 84 Internal and External Threats 87 The Big Différance 91 Populism as the Political 93 New Institutionalized Populism in Comparative Perspective 97 Conclusion 100 Bibliography 105 Chapter 5: Comparing Populism in Venezuela and the United States 109 Introduction 110 Betancourt and AD 110 McCarthyism 113 Chávez and the Chavistas 115 The Tea Party 117 Institutionalization 118 The Wedding of Clear Discourse and Clear Policy 121 Bibliography 123 Chapter 6: Everything in History Happens: Further Problems with Populism as a Comparative-­Historical Phenomenon 125 Bibliography 134 Chapter 7: Conclusion 136 Beyond Laclau: My Theoretical Intervention 137 How the Discursive Model Moves Beyond the Impasse of Social Movement Theory 138 Bibliography 142 Bibliography 143 Index 149 Using the conceptual framework of populism as discourse, Ritchie Savage provides a comparative analysis of U.S. and Latin American speeches and articles covering Betancourt's Acción Democrática, Chávez, McCarthyism, and the Tea Party. In so doing, he reveals an essential structure to populist discourse: reference to the "opposition" as a representation of the persistence of social conflict, posed against a collective memory of the origins of democracy and struggle for equality, is present in all cases. This discursive formation of populism is carried out in comparisons of political discourse in the United States and Venezuela, two countries that are typically classified as empirically specific in their economic and political development and ideological orientation. Populist Discourse in Venezuela and the United States explores how instances of populism, once exceptional phenomena within modern forms of political rule, are becoming increasingly integrated with the structure of democratic politics.-- Provided by publisher Front Matter ....Pages i-vii Introduction (Ritchie Savage)....Pages 1-13 The Negative Proof of the Discursive Model: Populism as a Conceptual and Empirical Problem (Ritchie Savage)....Pages 15-38 From Betancourt to Chávez: Interpreting Venezuelan Populism in Two Revolutionary Governments (Ritchie Savage)....Pages 39-70 Anti-Leftist Populism in McCarthyism and the Tea Party (Ritchie Savage)....Pages 71-103 Comparing Populism in Venezuela and the United States (Ritchie Savage)....Pages 105-120 Everything in History Happens: Further Problems with Populism as a Comparative-Historical Phenomenon (Ritchie Savage)....Pages 121-131 Conclusion (Ritchie Savage)....Pages 133-139 Back Matter ....Pages 141-152