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This book explores how a candidate who broke with almost every single norm governing candidate behaviour, appeared to eschew the professionalised forms of campaigning, and who had been more or less disowned by Republican elites, prove victorious? The focus is on Trump and his campaign; the account does not go beyond the November election and its immediate aftermath. The book argues that the Trump campaign, like earlier populist insurgencies, can be explained in part by considering some defining features of US political culture and, in particular, attitudes towards government. It explains the right-wing populism that has been a recurrent and ingrained feature of the political process over a long period. The book discusses structural characteristics of the American state that appear to be of particular significance in shaping attitudes, as well as some other ideas and frames brought to the forefront by the Trump campaign during the course of 2015 and 2016. It also considers the shifts and swings amongst voters and suggests that these, alongside ideas about the state and the 'entrepreneurial' efforts of the campaign, form part of the explanation for Trump's eventual victory. The book assesses Trump's ascendancy as a function of, and reaction to, the strategies and discourses pursued in the years preceding 2016 by Republican Party elites. 'Trumpism' and European forms of populism are still in some ways weakly embedded but they may intensify the battles and processes of group competition between different constituencies.
mistake to explain the Trump campaign or other outbursts of right-wing populism in the US by considering American history alone. After all, populist sentiments have a comparable place in many European countries. For example, as polls conducted in the second half of 2016 suggested, attitudes towards immigration, Islam and ‘political correctness’ were very similar in the US and Denmark (although, having said that, only 4 per cent of Danes admitted to supporting Trump's presidential campaign) (Motta, 2016 ). Nonetheless, although there were movements such as Poujadisme
distorted understanding of the social and political landscape, where the excluded masses are oppressed by a ruling elite. Populist movements are the self-proclaimed dissenting political forces out to shatter the status quo. An irreverent, nonconformist agenda explains populism’s attraction, especially right-wing populism, which is the subject of this chapter. By giving a voice to the powerless, the populists’ aspiration is to dislodge the ingrained interests of the power-elite. Populism is the voice of the excluded against the entrenched elite; their leaders see
, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen enhanced militarism and lessened commitment in many areas to the international rule of law upheld by multilateral institutions and human rights. 14 Right-wing populism and authoritarian regimes have further reduced the certainties of progressive reform. 15 The main argument of Boundaries was that the conceptual and institutional borders of mainstream international law
This concluding chapter summarises the key insights of the book. It also reflects on how these might apply to the current political moment, which at the time of writing is characterised by political flux and emerging right-wing populism (within which anti-immigration politics plays a central role). This situation underlines the persistence of questions of international responsibility and the role of the media in covering conflicts (and those who flee them). It ends by calling for networks of solidarity to challenge white amnesia and postcolonial innocence.
In recent years, the dramatic rise of right-wing populism in different parts of the world has coincided with an unprecedented circulation of fake news and conspiracy theories, especially on new media platforms. In the lead-up to the 2019 general election in India, the Indian cyberspace was dominated by aggressive Hindu nationalists (‘Internet Hindus’) who employed similar tactics of information manipulation. This chapter discusses Internet Hindus to analyse both the peculiar affordances of social media and the communalisation of everyday life that have combined to buttress the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in India.
Backed by Brazil’s wealthy agribusiness groups, a growing evangelical movement, and an emboldened military and police force, Jair Bolsonaro took office as Brazil’s president in 2019. Driven by the former army captain’s brand of controversial, aggressive rhetoric, the divisive presidential campaign saw fake news and misinformation shared with Bolsonaro’s tens of millions of social media followers. Bolsonaro promised simple solutions to Brazil’s rising violent crime, falling living standards and widespread corruption, but what has emerged is Latin America's most right-wing president since the military dictatorships of the 1970s. Famous for his racist, homophobic and sexist beliefs and his disregard for human rights, the so-called ‘Trump of the Tropics’ has established a reputation based on his polemical, sensationalist statements. Written by a journalist with decades of experience in the field, Beef, Bible and bullets is a compelling account of the origins of Brazil's unique brand of right-wing populism. Lapper offers the first major assessment of the Bolsonaro government and the growing tensions between extremist and moderate conservatives.
converting scientific possibilities into visible benefits by the people, for the people. 2) The anti-hegemonic element in this developmental view of science makes it different from right-wing populism as it draws on a vertical distinction between the people and the elites, rather than a horizontal distinction based on national membership as most right-wing populisms do (De Cleen and Stavrakakis, 2017 ). 3) We also draw attention to the transnational nature of this leftist view. As this chapter demonstrates, both China and India do not have an
Italy a combined list of the PRC and SI managed only 2.8 per cent. This means that for the first time ever not a single French or Italian communist will be present in the European Parliament. In France, Mélénchon's La France Insoumise (see Conclusion) took the lion's share of the radical left vote, although the six MEPs that it won were far less than it had hoped for. In Italy, the resurgent forces of right-wing populism completely swamped the radical left. Yanis Varoufakis’ DiEM25 movement made little impact, failing to win any seats. In the whole of Eastern and
populism and illiberal democracy in Europe (Wilkin, 2018 ). Even though this chapter points to the important ideological nuance between right-wing populism and the far right, particularly in relation to the latter's ethnonationalism and historical revisionism, Fidesz has contributed to the increasing political polarisation and radicalisation of right-wing politics in Hungary. Its institutional encroachments characterise an ‘accumulative state’ (Scheiring, 2020 ) and bode ill for future prospects for a democratic polity in Hungary (Buzogány, 2017 ). The lasting