A Nonthreatening Start

Threats ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
David P. Barash
Keyword(s):  
Gun Violence ◽  
Nuclear Deterrence ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
International Level ◽  
Social Realm ◽  
National Populism

This chapter provides an overview of threats. Threats are ubiquitous; they are so encompassing that they often go unnoticed. Although people are especially aware of explicit threats, other threats are often hidden, leaving most of the interpersonal ones implicit and therefore psychologically fraught. Warnings, in contrast, can be impersonal and not necessarily conveyed by an individual. But sometimes, threats and warnings are indistinguishable. This book begins by going through the biology of threats as conveyed and received by animals, followed by a variety of socially mediated threats intended to prevent crime, along with such consequential threats as hellfire and brimstone, personal death, and gun violence and the rise of right-wing national populism, and culminates in a critical look at nuclear deterrence—the premier manifestation of threat at the international level. Of particular note is how responses to threats often become counterproductive: hardly at all in the case of animals, occasionally in the personal and social realm, and then overwhelmingly when it comes to nuclear deterrence.

Individuals and Society

Threats ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 47-120
Author(s):  
David P. Barash
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Effective Deterrent ◽  
Capital Crimes ◽  
Gun Culture ◽  
National Populism

This chapter examines threats and responses to threats as they play themselves out in human interactions. One of the significant topics here is crime and punishment—notably, how criminal statutes seek to prevent crime by threatening criminals with punishment sufficient to provide an effective deterrent. There is a long and fascinating history of such efforts, with very little success. This leads to a look at the death penalty in particular and whether it has been effective in preventing capital crimes. The chapter also assesses how people turn to religion when under threat, as well as how religions have often threatened their adherents with after-death retribution for sin, which has long influenced much human anxiety and, in some cases, compliance. Moreover, the chapter reflects on the menace of death plus threats involved in the American gun culture, and race-based and economic anxieties driving the rise of right-wing national populism.

scholarly journals From Replacement Migrations to the “Great Replacement”: Demographic Reproduction and National Populism in Europe

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 671-685
Author(s):  
Andreu Domingo
Keyword(s):  
International Migration ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Population Ageing ◽  
First Century ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Demographic Evolution ◽  
Populist Movements ◽  
National Populism

This article aims to analyse how the distorted story about demographic evolution—demographic reproduction and its relationship with social stratification—is becoming substantial enough to erode democracy. In order to demonstrate this, it first analyses the origin of the “Great Replacement” metaphor that is used to refer to international migration, inside and outside the discipline of demography, as part of an allegory referring to demographic transformations in the twenty-first century, together with the metaphors “demographic winter” (referring to population ageing), and “demographic suicide” (when speaking of declining fertility). Second, it relates these three metaphors with right-wing national populist movements and explains how they have developed as conspiracy theories.

Federalism During the Trump Era and Beyond

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-96
Author(s):  
Carlos A. Ball
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Regulations ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Gun Violence ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
White House ◽  
National Leadership ◽  
Federal Administration ◽  
Trump Administration

This chapter explains how liberal states, with the enthusiastic support of progressives across the country, repeatedly exercised their authority as sovereigns to oppose and challenge some of the Trump administration’s most misguided, harmful, and discriminatory policies. State-based resistance to the Trump administration was particularly robust in matters related to immigration and environmental regulations. State-based policies were also crucial in filling the void left by the Trump administration’s failure to provide effective national leadership on issues that desperately demanded it, including the stemming of gun violence and controlling the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The chapter argues that if progressives going forward embrace federalism only situationally—defending it when there is a conservative in the White House, but dismissing its relevance or appropriateness when there is a liberal in that position—then it is less likely that the principle will remain a viable and effective tool in resisting the policies of a future right-wing administration in the Trumpian mold. In contrast, if progressives after the Trump era defend federalism as a matter of principle, then it is more likely that the concept will retain its constitutional and political legitimacy, making it available to progressives in future years when confronting another right-wing and potentially autocratic federal administration.

7. The rise of right-wing national populism and the future of racism

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-162
Author(s):  
Ali Rattansi
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
New Normal ◽  
Fertile Soil ◽  
The Future ◽  
Southern Border ◽  
Right Wing Populism ◽  
The Creation ◽  
National Populism

The rising numbers of refugees reaching European shores and America’s southern border to escape civil war and poverty has created fertile soil for ‘nativist’ backlashes. This trend, along with increasing ‘Islamophobia’, has led to a mushrooming of support for right-wing radical parties and the creation of new ones. ‘The rise of right-wing national populism and the future of racism’ considers the concept of populism and surveys current right-wing populism in Europe. It concludes that there is every possibility that the present normalization of xenophobia, ‘nativism’, populist nationalism, and racism in white-dominated societies will combine with authoritarianism to form a ‘new normal’, which will entrench and extend the reach of racism even further.

Mapping Antiglobalist Populism

Populism ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfred B. Steger
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Method ◽  
General Assumption ◽  
Presidential Candidate ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
Campaign Speeches ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Conceptual Core ◽  
National Populism

Abstract This article argues that the current explosion of right-wing national-populism is intricately connected to shifting perceptions of globalization in the world. I contend that a return to the once dominant but now frequently criticized ideational approach to the study of populism as ideology or discourse can provide insightful, if incomplete, explanations of the current populist moment. After a brief opening overview of some influential conceptual perspectives on populism, the article offers an appraisal of some major criticisms leveled against the ideological paradigm by advocates of competing approaches. I argue that the widespread portrayal of populism as a “thin-centered” ideology does not capture the ideational constellation of what I call antiglobalist populism. The currently dominant strain is reflected most prominently in “Trumpism” and similar European manifestations. To make my case, I apply the qualitative method of morphological discourse analysis (MDA) to key 2016 campaign speeches delivered by then presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and to related public remarks presented by British national-populist leader Nigel Farage on American soil. The research findings presented in this article suggest that globalization-related concepts have moved to the core and adjacent symbolic environment of antiglobalist populism. Thus, the general assumption of a “thin” conceptual core of national-populism no longer holds because its morphology has been significantly enriched. Bringing ideology back into populism studies serves the much-needed rehabilitation of a valuable perspective that has been written off too prematurely by many populism scholars.

Stepping in the Shoes of Leaders of Populist Right-Wing Parties

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jolanda Jetten ◽  
Rachel Ryan ◽  
Frank Mols
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Growth Condition ◽  
Baseline Condition ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Economic Context

Abstract. What narrative is deemed most compelling to justify anti-immigrant sentiments when a country’s economy is not a cause for concern? We predicted that flourishing economies constrain the viability of realistic threat arguments. We found support for this prediction in an experiment in which participants were asked to take on the role of speechwriter for a leader with an anti-immigrant message (N = 75). As predicted, a greater percentage of realistic threat arguments and fewer symbolic threat arguments were generated in a condition in which the economy was expected to decline than when it was expected to grow or a baseline condition. Perhaps more interesting, in the economic growth condition, the percentage realistic entitlements and symbolic threat arguments generated were higher than when the economy was declining. We conclude that threat narratives to provide a legitimizing discourse for anti-immigrant sentiments are tailored to the economic context.

Reducing gun violence: Operation Ceasefire in Los Angeles

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
George E. Tita ◽  
K. Jack Riley ◽  
Greg Ridgeway ◽  
Peter W. Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Gun Violence
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