Limiting Democratic Horizons to a Nationalist Reaction: Populism, the Radical Right and the Working Class

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the term “populism” has become increasingly linked to reconstructed radical right parties in Europe such as the French Front National and UKIP. Through its many uses and misuses in mainstream discourse, this association has created a mythology around such parties and their appeal to the “people”. This development has facilitated the return of nationalism and racism to the forefront of the mainstream political discourse and simultaneously obscured the deeper causes for such a revival. This article explores the ways in which populist hype, based on a skewed understanding of democracy as majority, has divided the “people” along arbitrary lines, tearing communities apart at the expense of more emancipatory actions. Based predominantly on electoral analysis and discourse theory, with a particular focus on the role of abstention, the aim of this article is to examine the process through which, by way of its involuntary and constructed association with the radical right, the “people”, and the working class in particular, have become essentialised in a nationalist project, moving further away from a narrative of class struggle towards one of race struggle.

KEYWORDS:

• populism
• democracy
• UKIP
• Front National
• abstention

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank the editors of this special issue and the reviewers for their precious feedback. The author would also like extend gratitude to colleagues who have helped develop this argument, and Giorgos Katsambekis and Aaron Winter in particular whose advice is always precious.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. While this is anecdotal for this article, such figures also dismiss the argument that Brexit represented the voice of the people against the elite, as it not only received a minority of the overall vote when abstention is taken into account, but also a minority of the vote in each social category.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aurelien Mondon

Aurelien Mondon is a Senior Lecturer in PoLIS, University of Bath, UK.