The discursive construction of discontent: varieties of populist anti-system ideas and discursive interactions in Europe

ABSTRACT

This article builds on existing scholarship on populism while shifting the lens to focus on the ideational and discursive dynamics of populist power. It defines populism as, at its core, the discursive construction of discontent, as charismatic leaders claiming to speak for the people against the elites use post-truth language to give expression to peoples’ grievances, to mobilize them via real and virtual networks of support, and to disseminate their ideas via social and traditional media in order to win elections and then to govern differently. This article deploys the discursive institutionalist framework of analysis to consider the four main features of the discursive construction of populism – the message, the messenger, the medium, and the milieu. Throughout, the article illustrates by considering not only the rise of populist anti-system parties in European countries but also the special challenges this poses for the EU.

KEYWORDS:

• Populism
• discursive institutionalism
• ideas
• discourse
• european union

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Sergio Fabbrini, Mark Thatcher, and Thomas Christiansen for their comments and counsel on the paper as well as their hospitality in Rome, where Covid restrictions had just been lifted, making possible my presence for the Annual Lecture.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Arguably, Barnett and Duvall’s (2005) rather vaguely described fourth form of power, which they call ‘productive power,’ could be seen as a nod toward ideational and discursive power.

2. For a more extensive approach to ideational and discursive power, involving persuasive power through ideas, coercive power over ideas, and structural or institutional power in ideas, see Carstensen and Schmidt 2016)

3. Think of this as similar to Inglehart’s (1997, 245) graph in which the traditional left-right horizontal axis is complemented by a vertical axis of parties that draw on both sides, in which he placed the German Greens above and Republikaners below.