Populist Discourse

Populist Discourse brings together experts from both linguistics and political science to analyse the language of populist leaders and the media's representation of populism in different temporal, geographical and ideological contexts, including Nazi Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Greece, the UK, the US and South America. With 17 contributions split into four sections, Populist Discourse covers a variety of approaches such as corpus-based discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis and political perspectives, making it a timely dissection for students and researchers working in linguistics, political science and communication.

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.

This edited collection draws on case studies from around the world to shed light on the sometimes contentious topic of populism. Examining diverse contexts including North America, Latin America, Europe, New Zealand, and Russia, the authors employ different approaches to populist discourse to analyse key notions in populism such as ‘the people’ and ‘the heartland’ as well as the exploitation of medium and narrative. Each of the chapters in this book explores an aspect of the way in which populism constructs a political reality, with reference to such high-profile examples as Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, the Scottish National Party, Hugo Chávez, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, and Winston Peters. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of both discourse analysis and political science.

The political landscape in Europe is currently going through a phase of rapid change. New actors and movements that claim to represent 'the will of the people' are attracting considerable public attention, with dramatic consequences for election outcomes. This volume explores the new political order with a particular focus on discursive constructions of 'the people' and the category of populism across the spectrum. It shows how a unitary representation of 'the people' is a central element in a vast range of very diverse political discourses today, acting to anchor identities and project antagonisms in a multitude of settings. The chapters in this book explore commonality and contrast in representations of ‘the people’ in both radical and mainstream political movements, looking in depth at recent political discourses in the European sphere. The authors draw on approaches ranging from Essex-style discourse theory over critical discourse studies, corpus analysis and linguistic pragmatics, to investigate how historically situated categories such as the people and populism become fixed through local linguistic, textual and narrative practices as well as through wider ideological and discursive patterns. As of January 2023, this e-book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched.

This edited volume breaks new ground and opens up new perspectives by capturing the role played by claims to authenticity in populist discourses in Brazil, India and Ukraine. By conceiving of both triumphant populism and increasing demands for authenticity as expressions of crisis, the volume seeks to satisfy the need to take a closer look at yearnings for orientation in a globalised world that is often associated with rapid social change and the disappearance of old certainties. Starting from the assumption that media play a crucial role for populist discourses of authenticity, the volume moves beyond conventional and social media by expanding its focus to media in formal education, notably school textbooks and curricula. These two particular media formats lastingly shape younger generations and thus the future. The proposed volume adopts global perspectives from three postcolonial countries that are often beyond the scope of studies dealing with populist discourses and media entanglements – insights that contribute new aspects to international scholarly debates.

This is the first book-length account of populism in the Visegrád Four (V4) countries — Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia — for the first 30 years of multi-party competition since the transformative events of 1989–91 in Central and Eastern Europe. Advancing a post-foundational approach to populism based on a semi-formal reading of Ernesto Laclau's theory, the book undertakes a detailed examination of how the 'people' has been constructed in populist discourses in the party systems of the four countries since 1989. Drawing on a wealth of source material, the book offers both a wide-ranging and in-depth overview and classification of populism in the V4 in terms of discursive (e.g. centrist, conservative, left-wing, liberal, nationalist, social) and hegemonic type (e.g. authoritarian hegemonic, generational counter-hegemonic) alike. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of populism, party politics, and Central and Eastern Europe.

European Memory in Populism explores the links between memory and populism in contemporary Europe. Focusing on circulating ideas of memory, especially European memory, in contemporary populist discourses, the book also analyses populist ideas in sites and practices of remembrance that usually tend to go unnoticed. More broadly, the theoretical heart of the book reflects upon the similarities, differences, and slippages between memory, populism, nationalism, and cultural racism and the ways in which social memory contributes to give substance to various ideas of what constitutes the ‘people’ in populist discourse and beyond. Bringing together a group of political scientists, anthropologists, and cultural and memory studies scholars, the book illuminates the relationship between memory and populism from different angles and in different contexts. The contributors to the volume discuss dominant notions of European heritage that circulate in the public sphere and in political discourse, and consider how the politics of fear relates to such notions of European heritage and identity across and beyond Europe and the European Union. Ultimately, this volume will shed light on how notions of a shared European heritage and memory can be used not only to include and connect Europeans, but also to exclude some of them. Investigating the ways in which nationalist populist forces mobilize the idea of a shared, homogeneous European civilization, European Memory in Populism will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of European studies, heritage and memory studies, migration studies, anthropology, political science and sociology. Chapters 1, 4, 6, and 10 of this book are freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No-Derivatives 4.0 license.

Populist Discourse: Recasting Populism Research offers a refreshingly innovative discourse theory perspective on populist phenomena. Reading this book will help you familiarize yourself with the historical genealogy of significant populist phenomena from the end of the 19th century onwards and with the main conceptual/theoretical accounts established to analyse them. Mainstream conceptualizations of populism in both academia and public discourse are critically discussed in order to map new, promising avenues for research. Inspired by the works of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the book addresses current challenges within populism research and highlights the new directions that a conceptually nuanced, theoretically rigorous and historically informed discursive orientation can contribute to the contemporary study of populism. Without sacrificing attention to detail, strong bibliographical support and a focus on the future development of populism research, Populist Discourse is written in accessible language to engage populism scholars, advanced undergraduates and graduate-level students within the field of political science. Due to its interdisciplinary character, it will also appeal to readers associated with various politically informed area studies and the broader field of ideology and discourse analysis.