The use of the past in populist political discourse

Kaya, Ayhan; Tecmen, Ayşe

doi:10.4324/9780429454813-4

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 1 publication

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…15–16) binary structure of civil discourse and Giesen’s ( 2004 ) symbolic figures of collective memory. The categorization of symbolic figures (F) and the permissible actions toward victims (Av) was made according to right-wing populist self-categorization and the categorization of their “enemies”—“the elites” and the “nefarious Other” presented in studies on right-wing populism (e.g., Brubaker 2018 ; Freistein and Gadinger 2019 ; Kaya and Tecmen 2021 ; Mudde 2017 ; Snow and Bernatzky 2018 ; Pelinka 2013 ; Wodak 2015 ).…”

Section: Method: Multilayered Narrative Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, such right-wing narratives are characterized by the systematic identification of the “native people” with the figure of oppressed “victims,” which is simultaneously a “sacred” category (for more details, see Arteaga Botello 2021 ; Binder 2021 ; Morgan 2021 ). Finally, RPAs usually attribute themselves to the “sacred” category of “heroes” in an attempt to self-legitimize themselves as representatives of the “people’s will” (on which, see Freistein and Gadinger 2019 ; Kaya and Tecmen 2021 ; Moffitt 2016 ; Wodak 2015 ). Rather than overcoming a mimetic crisis and constructing more optimal forms of competitive solidarity, RPA’s imitative competition desacralizes and antagonizes it, as RPA permanently cultivate a state of constant war by searching for new scapegoats within the community.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Appropriating the civil sphere: the construction of German collective identity by right-wing populist actors during the Covid-19 pandemic

Zavershinskaia

2023

Am J Cult Sociol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper considers the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on right-wing populists’ constructions of German collective identity. In their “Covid-19 crisis” narratives, German populists attempted to rearrange the discursive and institutional space of the German civil sphere through a symbolic inversion of the heroic signifier and legitimization of violence against perceived enemies. To analyze such discursive dynamics, this paper utilizes multilayered narrative analysis, drawing on the synthesis of civil sphere theory, the anthropological conceptualization of the relationship between mimetic crisis and symbolic substitution of violence and the sociological narrative theory of the sacralization and desacralization of heroism. This analysis structures the investigation of positive and negative symbolic constructions of German collective identity by German right-wing populist narratives. The analysis shows that although German right-wing populists are politically peripheral, their affective, antagonistic and anti-elite narratives contribute to the semantic erosion of the liberal democratic core of the German civil sphere. This in turn reduces the ability of democratic institutions to control violence and leads to the restriction of civil solidarity.

show abstract

Section: Method: Multilayered Narrative Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Appropriating the civil sphere: the construction of German collective identity by right-wing populist actors during the Covid-19 pandemic

Zavershinskaia

2023

Am J Cult Sociol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“Türkiye,” not “Turkey”

Selvi

2023

JLP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper critically examines the recent presidential memorandum that replaced the Anglicized exonymic version “Turkey” with the endonym “Türkiye” as a conscious, performative and public relations campaign at both national and international levels. On the surface, this change addresses populist sociolinguistic hypersensitivities surrounding the connotations of the term “turkey” while simultaneously harnessing the commodification and marketization of the Turkey brand through selective references culled from collective memory (i.e., past) and branding aimed at economic gains (i.e., future). However, at the deeper level, this transformation serves as a discursive political instrument and a top-down nation branding effort powered by substantial resources from the state and its institutions with an ultimate motivation to consolidate President Erdoğan’s political power and authority, elevate his status to that of a national leader and institutionalize his populist/nationalist yerli ve millî rhetoric from a de facto to de jure within Yeni Türkiye as a competitive authoritarian regime.

show abstract