This article focuses on two issues involved in the formation and political trajectory of populist representations within political antagonism. First, it explores the role of crisis in the articulation of populist discourse. This problematic is far from new within theories of populism but has recently taken a new turn. We thus purport to reconsider the way populism and crisis are related, mapping the different modalities this relation can take and advancing further their theorization from the point of view of a (...) discursive theory of the political, drawing primarily on the Essex School perspective initially developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. Second, this will involve focusing on the antagonistic language games developed around populist representations, something that has not attracted equal attention. Highlighting the need to study anti-populism together with populism, focusing on their mutual constitution, we will test the ensuing theoretical framework in an analysis of SYRIZA, a recent and, as a result, under-researched example of egalitarian, inclusionary populism emerging within the European crisis landscape. (shrink)

Within the scope of the POPULISMUS research project, we have engaged in a methodological cross-fertilization between Essex School-inspired methods of analysis and computer-assisted text analysis. In this chapter, emphasis is placed on the Greek case and the material analyzed involves newspaper articles from the 2014–5 period. In particular, the analysis focuses on the antagonistic language games developed around representations of ‘the people’ and ‘populism’. Highlighting the need to study anti-populism together with populism, something that has not attracted much attention in (...) the relevant bibliography, and focusing on their mutual constitution from a discourse-theoretical as well as lexicometric perspective, we articulate a comprehensive analysis of the populist and anti-populist press in Greece, with broader implications for populism research globally. (shrink)

Los recientes movimientos y partidos igualitarios en Europa (SYRIZA, PODEMOS, Front de Gauche, etc.), por no mencionar el fenómeno Corbyn en el Reino Unido, han puesto radicalmente en duda la asociación materializada entre el populismo y la extrema derecha en el contexto europeo. SYRIZA ha sido el primero de estos partidos en mostrar esta tendencia y asumir el poder. En este trabajo, el caso griego se utiliza para ilustrar las premisas teóricas básicas, las orientaciones metodológicas, las innovaciones conceptuales y las (...) percepciones analíticas de un enfoque discursivo de la investigación sobre el populismo. Así, se hace especial hincapié (1) en la arquitectura del discurso de SYRIZA; (2) en el papel de la crisis en su articulación; (3) en los juegos lingüísticos polarizados que influyen en su trayectoria. En consecuencia, exploramos (1) si “el pueblo” funciona como el principal punto nodal en el discurso de SYRIZA dentro de una representación antagónica del espacio político; (2) hasta qué punto la crisis —como dislocación sistémica— desencadena y, simultáneamente —como construcción performativa— es producida por el discurso populista; (3) si tal construcción tiene lugar dentro de una cultura política polarizada marcada por la frontera mutuamente establecida entre discursos populistas y antipopulistas. Nuestro análisis abarca tanto el desempeño de SYRIZA en la oposición como su trayectoria en el poder. (shrink)