scholarly journals Populist Disinformation: Exploring Intersections between Online Populism and Disinformation in the US and the Netherlands

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hameleers
Keyword(s):  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
The People ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mainstream Press

The discursive construction of a populist divide between the ‘good’ people and ‘corrupt’ elites can conceptually be linked to disinformation. More specifically, (right-wing) populists are not only attributing blame to the political elites, but increasingly vent anti-media sentiments in which the mainstream press is scapegoated for not representing the people. In an era of post-truth relativism, ‘fake news’ is increasingly politicized and used as a label to delegitimize political opponents or the press. To better understand the affinity between disinformation and populism, this article conceptualizes two relationships between these concepts: (1) blame attributions to the dishonest media as part of the corrupt elites that mislead the people; and (2) the expression of populist boundaries in a people-centric, anti-expert, and evidence-free way. The results of a comparative qualitative content analysis in the US and Netherlands indicate that the political leaders Donald Trump and Geert Wilders blame legacy media in populist ways by regarding them as part of the corrupt and lying establishment. Compared to left-wing populist and mainstream politicians, these politicians are the most central players in the discursive construction of populist disinformation. Both politicians bypassed empirical evidence and expert knowledge whilst prioritizing the people’s truth and common sense at the center stage of honesty and reality. These expressions resonated with public opinion on Facebook, although citizens were more likely to frame mis- and disinformation in terms of ideological cleavages. These findings have important implications for our understanding of the role of populist discourse in a post-factual era.

Populism in the United States

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Lowndes
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
Economic Elites ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Definition Of

Populism in the United States has been the subject of continual argument. Depicted alternately as a politics of provincial agrarianism, participatory democracy, or market-oriented modernizers; it has been all these things. Populism in the US is typically aimed at wealthy elites, yet populists tend to prefer the language of popular sovereignty to class, blurring distinctions in a broad definition of the people. While populism has had various iterations in the United States, it can be roughly divided between left-wing and right-wing variants according to how each defines the principal foe of the people: for left populists it is economic elites; for right populists it is non-white others and by extension the state itself.

scholarly journals Quarenteners vs. Cloroquiners: a framework to analyze the effect of political polarization on social distance stances

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Régis Ebeling ◽  
Carlos Córdova Sáenz ◽  
Jeferson Campos Nobre ◽  
Karin Becker
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Topic Modeling ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Psychological Aspects ◽  
Political Polarization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has struck people’s lives overnight. With an alarming contagious rate and no effective treatments or vaccines, it has evoked all sorts of reactions. In this paper, we propose a framework to analyze how political polarization affects groups’ behavior with opposed stances, using the Brazilian COVID polarized scenario as a case study. Two Twitter groups represent the pro/against social isolation stances referred to as Chloroquiners and Quarenteners. The framework encompasses: a) techniques to automatically infer from users political orientation, b) topic modeling to discover the homogeneity of concerns expressed by each group; c) network analysis and community detection to characterize their behavior as a social network group and d) analysis of linguistic characteristics to identify psychological aspects. Our main findings confirm that Cloroquiners are right-wing partisans, whereas Quarenteners are more related to the left-wing. The political polarization of Chloroquiners and Quarenteners influence the arguments of economy and life, and support/opposition to the president. As a group, the network of Chloroquiners is more closed and connected, and Quarenteners have a more diverse political engagement. In terms of psychological aspects, polarized groups come together on cognitive issues and negative emotions.

scholarly journals Images of A.F. Kerensky and the Political Struggle in 1917 (based on the newspapers of A.A. Suvorin)

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 834-883
Author(s):  
Boris I. Kolonitskii
Keyword(s):  
Visual Images ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Struggle ◽  
Personal Authority ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Cultural Forms ◽  
The Right

The article examines the cultural forms of legitimation / delegitimation of authority of the Provisional Government. Particular attention is paid to the personal authority of Alexander Kerensky, including rhetorical (persuasive) devices and visual images which underlay the tactics of praising or condemning him. As the main source, the article uses the newspapers of A.A. Suvorin, namely Malen'kaya gazeta [Little newspaper], Narodnaya gazeta [People’s newspaper], Rus' [Rus], Novaya Rus' [New Rus]. These newspapers are compared with resolutions, letters and diaries, and with publications in other periodicals. The study clarifies some aspects of political isolation of the Provisional Government in the fall of 1917. By this time, the propaganda attack on Kerensky was conducted not only by the Bolsheviks and other left-wing groups but also by the right-wing and conservative publications. The propaganda of the left- and right-wing opponents was significantly different but they had a point of contact: both of them created the image of the “traitor” who was unworthy to remain in power.

Reclaiming the People: Counter-Populist Algorithmic Activism on Israeli Facebook

2022 ◽  
pp. 152747642110594
Author(s):  
Yoav Halperin
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Interface Design ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Online Ethnography ◽  
The People ◽  
New Form

This article examines a new form of resistance to right-wing populist discourse on social media which I define as counter-populist algorithmic activism. Practitioners of this type of activism exploit platforms’ automated ranking mechanisms and interface design to bolster the online visibility of counter-populist voices. By so doing, activists seek to stymie the digitally mediated spread of right-wing populist rhetoric and advance an alternative, non-exclusionary vision of “the people.” To explore this nascent form of resistance, this study draws on a year-long online ethnography of a Facebook group of Israeli activists called Strengthening the Left Online. Through an observation of the group’s activities during 2017, as well as interviews with its main administrator and other left-wing Facebook users, I elucidate the distinctive nature of the motivations, strategies, and goals that guide counter-populist algorithmic activists.

"Agenda setting" in de verkiezingscampagne van november 1991 in Vlaanderen

Res Publica ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-207
Author(s):  
Bart Maddens
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
Nationalist Party ◽  
System Issue ◽  
The Moment

Voters probably do not take a series of relevant issues into consideration but rather vote on the basis of the few issues that happen to be on their minds at the moment of the decision. Issue salience, i.e. the availability of issue-schema's, is to a certain extent determined by the political communication during the election campaign. A content analysis of the debates during the 1991 campaign shows that the socio-economic issues, the ethnic issue and the immigrant issue were on top of the agenda. A similar analysis of the party political broadcasts and the ads in the national newspapers indicates that the parties tried to focus the campaign on the socio-economie issues (christian-democrats, socialists), the functioning of the political system (socialists, liberals) and to a much lesser extent on the environmental issue (greens) and the communal issue (left-wing and right-wing Flemish nationalists). Only the latter nationalist party attempted to prime the immigrant issue. Survey data show that this issue was exceptionally salient in the electorate, as were the ethnic issue and the political system issue.

The People: Ethnoracial Configurations, Old and New

2020 ◽  
pp. 79-96
Author(s):  
Leila Brännström
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The People ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Association ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Point Of Departure

In recent years the Sweden Democrats have championed a clarification of the identity of the ‘the people’ in the Instrument of government. The reference, they argue, should be to the ethnic group of Swedes. This chapter will take this ambition to fix the subject of popular sovereignty as the point of departure for discussing some of the ways in which the contemporary anti-foreigner political forces of Northern and Western Europe imagine ‘the people’ and identify their allies and enemies within and beyond state borders. To set the stage for this exploration the chapter will start by looking at Carl Schmitt’s ideas about political friendship, and more specifically the way he imagines the relationship between ‘us’ in a political and constitutional sense and ‘the people’ in national and ethnoracial terms. The choice to begin with Schmitt is not arbitrary. His thoughts about the nature of the political association have found their way into the discourse of many radical right-wing parties of Western and Northern Europe.

The History of Modern Japanese Law

Japanese Law ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 11-23
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Oda
Keyword(s):  
Social System ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Political ◽  
World War ◽  
The People ◽  
The Us ◽  
Major Reform ◽  
History Of ◽  
Japanese Law ◽  
Second World

Japan built its modern legal system on the basis of the codes imported from Europe, namely Germany and France. After the Second World War, there was some influence of US law, e.g. the Constitution and the Code of Criminal Procedure. The new Constitution, which remained unchanged until today, has introduced significant changes in the political and social system of Japan. It was proclaimed that sovereignty rested with the people and not the emperor. The Diet elected by universal election became the supreme body of the state. Another major reform was triggered by the US-Japan Structural Impediments Talks in 1989–1990.

Romania

2019 ◽  
pp. 388-434
Author(s):  
Laurențiu Ștefan
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Party System ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Coalition Governments ◽  
Political Spectrum ◽  
The Right

In Romania, a highly segmented and extremely volatile party system has contributed to a predominance of coalition governments. Alternation in power by coalitions led by either left-wing or right-wing parties used to be a major feature of Romanian governments. Thus, until a short-lived grand coalition in 2009, ideologically homogeneous coalitions were the general practice. Since then, parties from the right and left of the political spectrum have learned to work together in government. Given the semi-presidential nature of the political regime and the exclusive power to nominate the prime minister, the Romanian president plays an important role in coalition formation. The president also plays a pivotal role by shadowing the prime minister and therefore influencing the governance of coalitions. She has the power to veto ministerial appointments and therefore she can also shape the cabinet line-up. Pre-election coalitions are a common feature, more than two-thirds of Romanian coalition governments have been predicated on such agreements. Coalition agreements dealt with both policy issues and coalition decision-making bodies and the governance mechanisms that have been in most cases enforced and complied with—until the break-up of the coalition and the downfall of the respective government. One very common decision-making body is the Coalition Committee, which has been backed on the operational level by an inner cabinet made up of the prime minister and the deputy prime ministers, which usually are the heads of the junior coalition parties.

Spaltung und Radikalisierung. Deutschliberale und Deutschnationale 1850–1918

2021 ◽  
pp. 391-418
Author(s):  
Christian Klösch
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Political Biography ◽  
Petty Bourgeoisie ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
Christian Socialism ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Nationalist Parties

Division and Radicalisation. German Liberals and German Nationals 1850–1918. The developments in the 19th century laid the foundation for the spectrum of political parties that have determined the political landscape of Austria to the present day. Initially, German nationalism was shaped by a “liberal-thinking upper bourgeoisie”, but when the German National bloc broke up in the 1880s, an “aristocratically thinking petty bourgeoisie” took the lead. The political biography of Georg von Schönerer (1842–1921) reflects this development. From the remains of the German liberal ideology arose not only social democracy and Christian socialism but a German national “right wing”, economically liberal and state-supporting, and a “left wing”, ethnic, racist and anti-Semitic. These wings overlapped in many ways and their proponents often changed positions. Ultimately, Austrian German nationalist parties laid the ideological foundation upon which in the 20th century National Socialism built its ideology.

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