The defeat of left-wing populism and the dangers for democracy in Greece

The negotiations between the Greek government and its creditors have dominated European politics in these last months to such an extent that politicians and press alike seem to have largely forgotten about the populist radical right, and certainly the Greek Golden Dawn. All eyes were focused on the unequal struggle between Greece’s creditors and the left-wing populists of Syriza (Syriza’s right-wing, conservative and nationalist coalition partner ANEL, i.e. Independent Greeks, received very little attention). Resistance to neoliberal economic policy has been beaten for now, or so it seems, even with Syriza still in power as I write this. This crisis can go in many directions. But what is clear is that the defeat of the democratic, inclusive and pro-European left-wing populist Syriza and the imposition of even harsher austerity measures on a country suffering a profound economic crisis might strengthen the radical right and perhaps also other forces that constitute a danger to democracy and stability in Greece

The party of the people versus the cultural elite: Populism and nationalism in Flemish radical right rhetoric about artists

This article discusses the interplay between nationalism and populism in the Flemish (North-Belgian), Vlaams Bloc/Vlaams Belang’s (VB), populist radical right rhetoric about expressive culture. Building on a discourse theoretical analysis of three extensive case studies (concerts against the VB, the opposition between the VB and the Flemish theatres, and the VB’s criticism of the Flemish National Songfest), and a number of other controversial moments the article shows that nationalist and populist discourse play different roles in VB rhetoric about expressive culture. Radical and exclusionary nationalism is the ideological core of the VB’s views on culture and of its relationships with artists. Populism is a strategy the party uses to position itself as the political representative of the people, to present its nationalist demands as the will of the people, and to dismiss opposition to the party and its radical and exclusionary nationalist ideology as elitist. The VB’s ‘positive’ populist strategy of associating with popular Flemish artists and genres, the article shows, has only had limited success. By contrast, the party’s ‘negative’ populist strategy of criticising artists as an elite has been instrumental in delegitimising the strong, mainly anti-racist, resistance from the part of artists against the VB. It has reduced artistic resistance to the VB and its ideology to support of the political elite. And it has presented artists themselves as an elite that is completely out of touch with the ordinary people who suffer from multicultural society. The VB’s nationalist-populist rhetoric about expressive culture has thus contributed to the construction of the antagonism that is central to its populist radical right politics: the antagonism between on the one hand the anti-Flemish and multiculturalist political, cultural, media, and intellectual elite and on the other hand the people and the radical and exclusionary Flemish nationalist VB as the party of the people

The Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) and the limitations of transnational populism

Can you create an electorally successful left populist movement beyond the nation state? Benjamin Moffitt, Benjamin De Cleen, Panos Panayotu and Yannis Stavrakakis examine the transnational populist European movement DiEM25, which stood in several countries in the recent European Parliament elections, and considers its prospects in establishing an electorally competitive movement at the transnational level

De bodem als partner in duurzame ontwikkeling : een onderzoeksagenda voor de toekomst, Dutch Soil Platform, december 2008

"De uitdaging is een andere manier van werken, meer ontwikkelingsgericht, bij het verbinden van waterbeheer aan ruimtelijke ontwikkeling. We moeten leren werken met de initiatieven uit de samenleving. Niet kijken in hoeverre die bij onze kaders passen, maar of we onze kaders kunnen laten passen bij die initiatieven." aldus motiveert Annemieke Nijhof, DG Water, de gewenste, nieuwe benadering van bodem-, landschaps- en waterbelei

Populism, Exclusion, Post-truth. Some Conceptual Caveats Comment on “The Rise of Post-truth Populism in Pluralist Liberal Democracies: Challenges for Health Policy”

Abstract In their editorial, Speed and Mannion identify two main challenges “the rise of post-truth populism” poses for health policy: the populist threat to inclusive healthcare policies, and the populist threat to well-designed health policies that draw on professional expertise and research evidence. This short comment suggests some conceptual clarifications that might help in thinking through more profoundly these two important issues. It argues that we should approach right-wing populism as a combination of a populist down/up (people/elite) axis with an exclusionary nationalist in/out (member/non-member) axis. And it raises some questions regarding the equation between populism, demagogy and the rejection of expertise and scientific knowledge

Getting the Problem Definition Right: The Radical Right, Populism, Nativism and Public Health Comment on "A Scoping Review of Populist Radical Right Parties’ Influence on Welfare Policy and its Implications for Population Health in Europe"

Building on Rinaldi and Bekker’s scoping review of articles on the impact of populist radical right (PRR) politics on welfare and population health, this short article formulates three pointers towards a framework that might help structure future research into PRR, populist politics more generally, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and other health issues. First, we discuss the centrality of welfare chauvinism to the PRR’s impact on health, taking this as a cue for a broader reflection on the importance on distinguishing between the nativist and populist dimensions of PRR politics. Secondly, we turn our attention to the potential moderating effect of the PRR’s welfare chauvinism on the welfare cuts proposed by their right-wing coalition partners, comments we see as pointing to the need to focus on nativist, populist, neoliberal and other threats to welfare policy more generally, rather than on the PRR only. Thirdly, we reflect on the paradoxical nature of welfare chauvinism – its negative consequences for the health of the ‘own people’ it proclaims to defend – as a starting point for a brief discussion of the need to consider carefully the not-so-straightforward relation between the PRR’s political rhetoric, its (impact on) policy and institutions, and the outcomes of such policy

The Radical Right versus the Media: from Media Critique to Claims of (Mis)Representation

Criticizing mainstream media for their ‘lies’ or ‘fake news’ has become a common political practice on the radical right. Further empirical research is needed to better understand the intricacies of these attacks on media, in particular for the way they relate to criticism of the political system as a whole and to matters of political representation. How do radical right actors construct a sense of political misrepresentation through their critique of media, and how does this allow them to make representative claims? This is what we explore in this article through a discourse analysis of the Flemish radical right youth movement Schild & Vrienden. Drawing inspiration from constructivist theories of representation, we explore the entanglement in empirical practice between two dimensions of representation: 1) between its literal meaning (as ‘portrayal’) and its political meaning (as standing or speaking for), and 2) between representation and misrepresentation. With our analysis, we shed light on the increasing politicization of the media as a non-electoral space of representation and misrepresentation, and on the role played by media criticism in the radical right’s broader (meta)political strategies

Evaluating external coatings as a tool for safer freeform glass structures

p. 860-866the technology exists to melt and fuse certain glass types into astonishing shapes. Transforming this technology to the scale of building components would create an innovative tool with a high architectural potential. However, in construction industry such techniques are still in an experimental stage. In spite of several small successes that have been accomplished with e.g. the welding of glass for building applications [1],[2], a fundamental safety problem still needs to be solved: fused or welded glass is monolithic and brittle. Traditional laminating techniques cannot be used for several reasons, e.g. because polymer interlayers will burn or disintegrate when exposed to temperatures needed for glass fusing or welding. Consequently, this contribution will focus on external coatings, mostly polymers, which can be applied at the outer surface of a monolithic glass structure. The purpose of the coatings is to form a safety film, which prevents shattering of the glass pieces and/or ensures a certain level of post-breakage strength and stiffness. A limited number of selected products will be tested experimentally on small test specimens, illustrating some of the potentials and limits of this technology in architectural freeform glass applications.Belis, J.; De Cleen, B.; Verwimp, F.; Delince, D.; Van Impe, R. (2010). Evaluating external coatings as a tool for safer freeform glass structures. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/695

Populismo y nacionalismo: representando al pueblo como “los de abajo” y como nación

The close empirical connections and conceptual affinities between populism and nationalism, have led to a widespread but misleading overlap between the concepts of populism and nationalism in academic debates, journalism and political rhetoric. Despite the obvious importance of the connections between nationalism and populism, their conceptual and empirical relations have received rather limited systematic attention. Drawing on the poststructuralist discourse theoretical tradition associated with Laclau and Mouffe and the Essex School of discourse analysis, this article treats populism and nationalism as distinct ways of discursively constructing and claiming to represent ‘the people’, as underdog and as nation respectively. The differences between them can also be identified and highlighted from a spatial or orientational perspective, by looking at the architectonics of populism and nationalism as revolving around a down/up (vertical-power) and an in/out (horizontal-identity and territory) axis respectively. Building on this framework, we suggest that the co-occurrence of populism and nationalism can fruitfully be studied through the prism of articulation. Again, a focus on discursive architectonics allows grasping how different political projects construct different discourses by connecting the building blocks of populism and nationalism in particular ways. The last part of the article illustrates the benefits of the discourse-theoretical approach by studying the articulation of populism and nationalism in the populist radical right’s exclusionary nationalist rejection of ethnic-cultural diversity, and in the criticisms of supra-national and multi-national politics found both on the Left and on the Right.Las estrechas conexiones empíricas y las afinidades conceptuales entre el populismo y el nacionalismo han llevado a una superposición generalizada pero engañosa entre los conceptos de populismo y nacionalismo en los debates académicos, en el periodismo y en la retórica política. A pesar de la evidente importancia de las conexiones entre el nacionalismo y el populismo, sus relaciones conceptuales y empíricas han recibido una atención bastante limitada. Basándonos en la tradición teórico-discursivo post-estructuralista asociada a Laclau y Mouffe y la Escuela de Essex de análisis del discurso, este artículo trata el populismo y el nacionalismo como formas distintas de construir discursivamente y de reclamar representar al “pueblo” como “los de abajo” (underdog en inglés) y como nación, respectivamente. Las diferencias entre ambos conceptos también se pueden identificar y resaltar desde una perspectiva espacial u orientacional, al mirar la arquitectura del populismo y el nacionalismo como si se estructurase en torno a un eje abajo/arriba (poder vertical) y un dentro/fuera (horizontal - identidad y territorio) respectivamente. Sobre la base de este marco, sugerimos que la coincidencia del populismo y el nacionalismo pueden estudiarse fructíferamente a través del prisma de la articulación. Una vez más, un enfoque en la arquitectura discursiva permite comprender cómo distintos proyectos políticos construyen diferentes discursos al conectar los componentes básicos del populismo y el nacionalismo de maneras particulares. La última parte del artículo ilustra los beneficios del enfoque teórico-discursivo al estudiar la articulación del populismo y el nacionalismo en el rechazo excluyente y nacionalista de la derecha populista radical de la diversidad étnico-cultural y en las críticas de la política supranacional y multinacional encontradas tanto en la izquierda como en la derecha

Beyond populism studies

Populism’ has become ever more ubiquitous in political analysis, to the extent that ‘populism studies’ appears on course to establishing itself as a field of research in its own right. This article warns about the dangers of such a development. Taking a discourse theoretical approach as our starting point – but also critically engaging with this tradition’s contribution to the hype about populism – we suggest that ‘populism studies’ (and the preoccupation with populism this field embodies) risks reifying populism by focusing on populism as a phenomenon ‘as such’, and through an over-reliance on the concept of populism to approach that phenomenon. This, we argue, hampers a nuanced and contextualized understanding of the exact role populism plays in different populist politics. This is not a call for abandoning the concept of populism altogether, but a call for de-centring the concept and for moving beyond academia’s ‘populist moment’