Publications | peer-reviewed article

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Populism as a political communication style. An empirical study of political parties' discourse in Belgium

author(s) | Jan Jagers and Stefaan Walgrave

journal | European Journal of Political Research

publication year | 2007     volume | 46     issue | 3     pag | 319-345

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abstract | The scientific debate about populism has been revitalised by the recent rise of extreme-right parties in Western Europe. Within the broad discussion about populism and its relationship with extreme-right, in this article, we confine ourselves to three topics, a conceptual, an epistemological and an empirical issue. First, taking a clear position in the ongoing definition struggle, we define populism primarily as a specific political communication style. We conceive of populism as a political style essentially displaying proximity of the people, while at the same time taking an anti-establishment stance and stressing the (ideal) homogeneity of the people by excluding specific population segments. Second, we point out that defining populism as a style enables us to turn it into a useful concept that has too often remained vague and blurred. Third, drawing on our operational definition of populism, a comparative discourse analysis of the political party broadcasts of the Belgian parties is carried out. Our quantitative analysis leads to a clear conclusion. In terms of the degree and the kinds of populism embraced by the six political parties under scrutiny, the extreme-right party Vlaams Blok behaves very differently from the other Belgian parties. Its messages are a copy-book example of populism.


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