Political emotions and digital political mobilization in the new populist parties: the cases of Podemos and Vox in Spain

ABSTRACT

This text examines the role of emotions as a strategy of populist mobilization into a risk context, presuming that populism is a political style useful for any kind of political actor, but especially suitable for ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘low-cost’ parties. The article compares the cases of Podemos and Vox, the two populist parties that emerged successfully into the electoral scene after the Spanish movement of the Indignants (or 15M movement). Combining literature with an exploratory qualitative analysis of their websites and social media accounts, the paper argues that emotional persuasion is widely used by the two both populist parties’ framings, but in quite different ways, according to their cute different ideological projects. Moreover, the text holds that emotions are not exclusive of the populist nor the social protests, but they are a feature of current democracy and even intrinsic to representative democracy from its origins.

KEYWORDS:

• Political emotions
• populism
• social movements
• political communication
• digital democracy
• risks
• Podemos
• Vox

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Roberto Barbeito Iglesias

Roberto Barbeito Iglesias occupies a post of ‘Profesor Titular’ (Associate Professor) of Sociology at the Department of Humanities, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, University Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid. He holds the Executive Secretariat of the Spanish Federation of Sociology (FES). His current main research interest includes democratic innovation - especially at the local level- and political communication, with special attention to digital technologies and problems related to socioeconomic and knowledge inequalities, work, consumption, welfare, immigration, and climate change.

Ángel Iglesias Alonso

Ángel Iglesias Alonso is Professor of Political and Administrative Sciences at the University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid. His research focuses on issues of local government with regard to Spain and in a European comparative perspective, with particular attention on local democratic innovations and local public management. Other areas of research involve the study of Spain's political corruption, specifically addressing its role in local policy processes. He holds the Coordination of the Spanish Research Committee on Political Sociology (CI8) at the Spanish Federation of Sociology (FES).