This is a revised version of the acceptance speech of the leading Austrian discourse analysis scholar, for a ‘lifetime award’ from the Austrian Ministry for Women, Families & Youth. Speech. Honored guests, dear friends! Let me begin by saying – despite receiving a life-time award [1], I am certainly not going to stop working now, I will… Continue reading “Free spaces for thought and de-acceleration”
On Thursday, Gerard Batten, the leader of UKIP, hired Stephen Yaxley-Lennon as an adviser, a move which marked a canny awareness of the power of digital influencers to reach new audiences, and suggested an overt shift towards the far-right under the stewardship of Gerard Batten, as well as the embracement of a new digital strategy.… Continue reading “SPLIT KIPPERS: THE INCREASING POPULISM OF UKIP”
Winston Peters’ New Zealand First has been a textbook case of how to combine populist rhetoric and nativist discourse in the service of political mobilization. Some 20 years ago, I coedited a book on The New Politics of the Right. The focus of the volume was on the adoption of populism by the radical right,… Continue reading “Winston Peters: From Populist Maverick to Elder Statesman”
Democracy at the beginning of the 21st century has changed considerably. The change is due in no small part to what may be termed the digitization of social interaction. As in so many other areas of daily life, social networks play an increasingly important role in the public representation of politics. It is inarguable that… Continue reading “Populism – a Critique of an Unclear Term”
Fascism isn’t new to Latin America, and neither is the radical right. Jair Bolsonaro, a former military officer, is the newly elected President of Brazil and one of the most right-wing politicians in power in Latin America in decades. He thus joins the radical right-wing surge of politicians around the globe from Presidents Orbán (Hungary)… Continue reading “Brazil’s Bolsonaro Is The Latest Incarnation Of The Radical Right In Latin America”
Newly elected Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s narrative is one that lends itself to creating what historians of dictatorship have called a ‘cult of personality’. One of his supporters recently told The Nation, reiterating claims now surrounding Bolsonaro: ‘He is the messiah! He was knifed, but rather than stay at home or lie on the beach,… Continue reading “Is He a Fascist? The Election of Jair Bolsonaro”
The October 2018 issue of The Atlantic , the venerable American monthly, is titled “Is Democracy Dying?” and contains a series of articles which, by and large, answer this question in the affirmative. Their authors though come to the rescue by suggesting ways the demise of democracy might be prevented. These accounts of democratic decline… Continue reading “Sound an Alarm?”
In October Brazilians will vote for president in particularly troubled election. It is the first ballot after Dilma Rousseff’s controversy impeachment, which put into power the unpopular interim Michel Temer. Besides, Lula, the first candidate in the polls, is in prison and was barred from running the election. Finally, it is the first time that… Continue reading “Bolsonaro: Radical Right-Wing Populism reaches Brazil”
In the burgeoning literature on the populist right, smouldering resentment has so far not been sufficiently appreciated and expressed. The SVP (Swiss People’s Party) is Switzerland’s largest political party. This was not always the case. Until the 1990s, the SVP garnered around 10 percent of the popular vote. As the traditional representative of Switzerland’s farming… Continue reading “Everything That is Wrong is the Fault of ’68: Regaining Cultural Hegemony by Trashing the Left”
The term “right-wing populism,” although commonly used by the German media, has been the subject of intense debate among social scientists, focusing on the central question of whether right-wing populism is an independent political phenomenon that is separate from right-wing extremism, or simply a strategic political option within the radical right. In the context of… Continue reading “Right-Wing Populism as a Strategy of the Radical Right”