Populist Narrative

Extracted Attributes

• Definition

  A political approach that champions the 'common people' against a perceived elite.

• Connotation

  Frequently carries a negative or pejorative tone.

• Key Strategy

  Distinguishing between 'us' (the common people) and 'them' (the elites/bad governments).

• Rhetorical Device

  Construction of a permanent crisis and use of war lexicon to evoke emotional charge.

• Core Characteristic

  Often associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment.

• Impact on Democracy

  Can fuel distrust in democratic organizations and endanger the democratic process.

Timeline

• The term 'Populism' developed and emerged, applied to various politicians, parties, and movements. (Source: Wikipedia)

  Late 19th century

• Hugo Chávez was elected President of Venezuela, rising to power with a Populist Narrative and subsequently implementing policies like Oil Nationalization. (Source: Related Document, Wikipedia)

  1998-12-06

• Donald Trump's 'Save America' speech illustrated how a populist narrative can sway masses, leading to the assault on the US Capitol. (Source: Web Search)

  2021-01-06

Populism

Populism is a contested concept for a variety of political stances that emphasize the idea of the "common people", often in opposition to a perceived elite. It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed in the late 19th century and has been applied to various politicians, parties, and movements since that time, often assuming a pejorative tone. Within political science and other social sciences, different definitions of populism have been employed.

Web Search Results

• Populist narrative power in a globalised infosphere: a cross ...

  rising up against an authoritarian state, so too were Westerners fighting their own supposedly tyrannical and draconian Covid restrictions. This narrative redirects attention from Chinese news events to Western societies, from the conflict between Chinese protesters and the government to the core populist narrative about the antagonistic dichotomy of good people versus bad governments in democratic countries. [...] In this study, we examine the dynamics of populist actors in a globalized information sphere, where global events shape domestic political discourse. Our study uncovers three key research findings. First, populists played a major role in shaping the narrative around the protests in China. Despite the growing influence of populist movements in democratic societies, little theoretical and comparative work has explored their relationship with popular protests in authoritarian regimes. The intense [...] The dominance of right-wing populists lead to various but often common patterns of reframing the ongoing protests in China in both the English and German-speaking spheres. The first, and perhaps most common strategy, was to amplify the prevailing populist narrative of the ‘good people’ vs. the ‘evil elites’. In Fig. 3a we show the most frequent words in the dataset, as well as how much more frequently than expected they occur relative to everyday usage (see Methods for details). Highlighted are

• How Donald Trump's populist narrative led directly to ...

  January 6 “Save America” speech is a perfect illustration of the way a populist narrative can sway the masses. It is essential to understand its mechanism and to recognize its characteristics if we want to prevent a repeat. [...] All of this was made possible by Donald Trump ability and willingness to heighten and take advantage of his supporters’ sense of exclusion (economic, social or otherwise), fear of cultural and identity dispossession, and distrust toward US institutions. Trump’s populist narrative and coded language gave them a feeling of empowerment and encouraged them to imagine that a violent attack on Congress would be a patriotic, heroic act. [...] ## An existential threat The populist discourse also requires the construction of a permanent crisis. The enumeration of numerous enemies leads to an implacable logic: “Our country has been under siege.” This type of war lexicon is all the more effective that the emotional charge is reinforced with the evocation of children:

• UNDERSTANDING THE GLOBAL RISE OF POPULISM

  February 2018 people in their towns looked like them, sounded like them and even had the same traditional loyalties as most of them: an age in other words when there were fewer immigrants and even fewer Muslims living amongst them. Globalisation and socio-economic factors in this account obviously play a role, as Giddens makes clear. But according to this narrative at the heart of the modern populist problem is not so much economics as identity and meaning driven by a set of inchoate, but [...] order, it has only made things much, much, worse. And given all this, we should not be so surprised that there has been a backlash in the form of populism. The only surprise perhaps is that it did not happen earlier. The End of Communism Of course one does not have to pick and choose between these various narratives. All contain some element of truth. Yet in my view they also leave some important parts of the story out. [...] Britain a country that works for everyone and not just the rich and powerful. Understanding the global rise of Populism | Michael Cox 7 Yet this has also been the dominant narrative of such political parties as Syriza in Greece, The Five Star movement in Italy, and Podemos in Spain - and all three of those are on the left. This cannot be said of the National Front in France of course, but there is no more rampant populist in Europe today than Marine Le Pen, who has campaigned against the

• What is populism: definition, characteristics, examples

  ## How does populism threaten the rule of law? By distinguishing between "us" and "them", populists fuel distrust in democratic organisations. For example, they tell their supporters that elections are not reliable or that the government and elites are acting against the will of the people. While criticism of government decisions is desirable in a functioning democracy, these narratives sometimes go beyond this and endanger the democratic process.

• Trump, Brexit, and the Rise of Populism: Economic Have- ...

  narratives, focused upon certain events and particular circumstances, to account for the rise of individual populist parties and lead ers in each case . For example, American commentators have speculated that the success of Donald Trump in the GOP primaries reflected a racist reaction to the election (and reelection) of the first African -American president to the White House .23 It has also been thought to rest upon the