The populist discourse on the environment: framework and evidence from Europe and the Americas

ABSTRACT

What is the relationship between populism and the environment? Existing research answers this question by identifying empirical patterns emerging from the positions of specific populist parties. These patterns, however, are not leveraged to propose an overall framework for how populism itself relates to environmental positions. We adopt a deductive approach that draws from populism’s essence to articulate what we should expect. Populism is an ideologically ‘thin’ discursive approach centered on people-centrism and anti-elitism. The environment, as other substantive matters, is therefore a second-order issue. Given this, we should expect considerable variations across populists in their environmental positions. At the same time, we should expect the consistent anchoring of those positions in people-centrism and anti-elitism – in consonance with the specific factors pertinent to those parties that ultimately define their environmental positions. Our approach systematizes analytically the literature’s observations, corrects some of its empirical limitations, and allows for reflection on the environmental commitment of any one populist party. We undertake a cross-regional analysis of four cases to illustrate our argument: Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in France, the US Republican Party led by Donald Trump, Spain’s Podemos led by Pablo Iglesias, and Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro’s socialist regime in Venezuela.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

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9. We draw in this paper with permission from Taylor & Francis from our recent book, F. Duina and H. X. Zhou, The Populist Logic on the Environment (New York: Routledge, 2024).

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113. Gilmartin and Greene, op. cit., Ref. 108.

114. Ibid.

115. Podemos, op. cit., Ref. 107 and Ref. 109.

116. Podemos, op. cit., Ref. 107.

117. J. Sola and C. Rendueles, ‘Podemos, the upheaval of Spanish politics and the challenge of populism’, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 26 (1) (2018), pp. 99–116.

118. Errejón, op. cit., Ref. 100.

119. Tremlett, op. cit., Ref. 103.

120. Gilmartin and Greene, op. cit., Ref. 108.

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122. Podemos, op. cit., Ref. 109.

123. Gallego, op. cit., Ref. 112.

124. Ibid.

125. Podemos, Pobreza Energética en España: Situación Actual, Causas y Medidas para Terminar von Ella, (24 November 2016). Retrieved from https://podemos.info/pobreza-energetica-espana-situacion-actual-causas-medidas-terminar/ (accessed 20 June 20, 2024.

126. Gallego, op. cit., Ref. 112.

127. Podemos, op. cit., Ref. 25.

128. Podemos, Comunicado del Área de Medio Ambiente, Energía y Políticas Urbanas por el Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente (5 June 2015). Retrieved from https://podemos.info/comunicado-del-area-de-medio-ambiente-energia-y-politicas-urbanas-por-el-dia-mundial-del-medio-ambiente/ (accessed 20 June 2024).

129. J. P. Zúquete, ‘The missionary politics of Hugo Chávez’, Latin American Politics and Society, 50 (1) (2008), pp. 91–121

130. K. Roberts, ‘Populism and democracy in Venezuela under Hugo Chávez’, in C. Mudde, and C. R. Kaltwasser (Eds.) Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat or Corrective for Democracy? (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 136–159.

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136. Ibid.

137. C. Wiseman, C and D. BéLand, ‘The politics of institutional change in Venezuela: Oil policy during the presidency of Hugo Chávez’, Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Revue Canadienne des Études Latino-Américaines et Caraïbes, 35 (70) (2010), pp. 141–164.

138. C. Salerno, ‘Venezuela’s Doha climate delegate talks: ‘”Rich countries profit from pollution,” Democracy Now (11 December 2012). Retrieved from https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7541/. (accessed 20 June 2024).

139. Venezuela, op. cit., Ref. 135, pp. 2 and 4.

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141. A. Rosales, ‘Venezuela’s deepening logic of extraction’, NACLA Report on the Americas, 49 (2) 2017, pp. 132–135.

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144. Albacity.org, op. cit., Ref. 140.

145. United Nations, Venezuela – President Addresses General Debate, 75th Session, (2013). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c3zjeEzp8w (accessed 20 June 2024).

146. J. Buxton, ‘Economic policy and the rise of Hugo Chávez’, in S. Ellner, and D. Hellinger (Eds.), Venezuelan Politics in the Chávez Era: Class, Polarization & Conflict (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003), pp. 113–130, p. 125.

147. D. Parker, ‘Chávez and the search for an alternative to neoliberalism’, Latin American Perspectives, 32 (2) (2005), pp. 39–50, p. 45.

148. Venezuela, op. cit., Ref. 135, pp. 4–5.

149. Ibid, p. 33.

150. Rosales, op. cit., Ref. 141.

151. H. Chávez, ‘Hugo Chávez on climate change and capitalism’, (6 March 2013). Retrieved from https://climateandcapitalism.com/2013/03/06/hugo-chavez-on-climate-change-and-capitalism/ (accessed 20 June 2024).

152. Ibid.

153. Ibid.

154. Mudde and Kaltwasser, op. cit., Ref. 11, p. 150.

155. K. Dunn, ‘Preference for radical right-wing populist parties among exclusive-nationalists and authoritarians’, Party Politics, 21 (3) (2013), pp. 367–380.

156. Dieckhoff, Jaffrelot, and Massicard, op. cit., Ref. 3.

157. Böhmelt, op. cit., Ref. 14.