| Kommentar |
Although there is no consensus on how to name the right-wing movements that became increasingly important in the last two decades in Europe and abroad, there is agreement on the point that most of these political movements rely on populism. According to the minimalist definition offered by Mudde and Kaltwasser (2012), populism refers to a thin ideology that opposes, on the one hand, the pure people, and the corrupt elite, on the other. The emphasis on the pure people has also been called nativism and ethno-populism. Populist actors and politicians speak for the people (the us in the equation), representing its culture, values, and general interests against an outside enemy. In current times, empirical studies show that right-wing populism in Europe and the United States build on a rhetoric that blames not only the elites but also feminists, LGBTI+ activists, migrants, refugees and supporters of liberal democracy for a loss of living standards, a sense of cultural cohesion, and most importantly a sense of pride grounded on race and gender. In this seminar, besides of reviewing already classic pieces on right-wing ideology and populism, we will discuss how Otherness towards women, LGBTI+ individuals, Muslims and people of color is constructed in contingent ways in several case studies taken from the European and the American context.
Canovan, M. (2004). "Populism for political theorists?" Journal of Political Ideologies 9(3): 241-252.
Mudde, C. (2002). The ideology of the extreme right, Manchester University Press.
Mudde, C., & Kaltwasser, C. R. (Eds.). (2012). Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat or corrective for democracy?. Cambridge University Press.
Pető, A. (2020). "Fear Eats the Soul: self-quarantining in an illiberal state." Feminist Dissent.
Wodak, R. (2015). The politics of fear: What right-wing populist discourses mean, Sage.
|
