Adobe Systems Anti-populism as a communication style Vlastimil Havlík Adobe Systems Outline 1.What is anti-populism 2. The empirical case of Czechia 3. Discussion - implications Adobe Systems What is anti-populism ̶ Adobe Systems Populist/anti-populist divide ̶“populism as an ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, ‘the pure people’ versus ‘the corrupt elite’, and which argues that politics should be an expression of the volonté générale (general will) of the people” (Mudde 2004) ̶Populism as „(democratic) illiberalism“ (Pappas 2014) ̶ ̶Antipopulism - strategic stances presented in opposition to populism (Moffit, 2018) ̶Creating its own and the enemy`s identities ̶ ̶ ̶ Adobe Systems Populist/anti-populist divide ̶the ideational (Stavrakakis et al. 2017) and performative dimensions (Ostiguy 2017) of (anti)-populism ̶ IDEATIONAL: discursive construction of ideas and political identities PERFORMATIVE: stylistic and behavioral characteristics ̶ ̶the context of discoursive opportunities (Koopmans, Olzak 2004) ̶ Adobe Systems Populist/anti-populist divide ̶Socio-cultural approach: going beyond but related to populism as an ideology and organization ̶high and low in politics: orthogonal to the left-right axis ̶Acting and being in politics – performative element (accent, language, body language, ways of dressing) ̶Important part of creating identities („being one of us“) ̶Linked to style, but also connected to the country`s history, group identities ̶Social-cultural and political-cultural elements ̶ Adobe Systems Populism, Czech politics and the 2021 election ̶Stabilization and unidimensionality of party competition in the Czech Republic since the mid-1990s ̶Political + economic crisis => the emergence and strengthening of populist political actors ̶2021 –victory of electoral coalitions campaigning on anti-populist platform ̶RQ: What was the content of the anti-populist communication before the 2021 election? ̶What are the implications of the new populist/anti-populist divide for both Czech and European politics? ̶ Havlík, V., & Kluknavská, A. (2022). The Populist Vs Anti‐Populist Divide in the Time of Pandemic: The 2021 Czech National Election and its Consequences for European Politics. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies. Adobe Systems Data and method ̶Qualitative content analysis ̶ ̶Data: FB profiles of leaders of anti-populist parties (year before the election) + mainstream media presentation + official documents of the parties ̶ ̶The meaning of populism and populist political actors AND construction of anti-populist identities in ideational and performative dimensions Adobe Systems The ideatiational dimension of anti-populism The constructed divide between populism vs democracy – populism (and extremism) as a fatal threat to Czech democracy ̶ „democratic politicians“ or „liberal force“ against „populism and extremism“ ̶Suppression of „primary“ ideological identities ̶ Economically irresponsible populism vs responsible anti-populist forces – the anti-Covid distributive policy of the populist government ̶the ‘irresponsible plundering of the public finances’ and ‘pernicious indebtedness of the country’ ̶ Pro-Eastern vs pro-Western foreign policy orientation ̶Czechia as ‘an insignificant, isolated, poor, and endangered country in Eastern Europe’ vs ´democracy, prosperity, security, and stability’ ̶ ̶ Adobe Systems The ideatiational dimension of anti-populism Populist polarization vs anti-populist unification ̶the populists ‘widen the abysses in our country´ and ‘pit people against each other´ ̶ Lying amoral populism vs truthful and moral anti-populism - populists' alleged absence of morality and democrats’ strong principles ̶ ‘lies and empty promises’ vs decency/‘top independent experts’ ̶ Adobe Systems The performative dimension of anti-populism Incivil populism vs civil anti-populism ̶low vs high politics ̶‘bringing normal decency back into politics’ ̶ Populist political theatre vs effective politics of anti-populists - empty, simple solutions aiming to arouse emotions, anti-populists supposedly crafted their policies through rational and reasonable decision-making Adobe Systems Implications ̶Discoursive emergence of populist/anti-populist divide replacing old (ideological) political identities ̶anti-populist reaction as a the highly polarising ‘confrontation by design’ – increased polarization (populist as „agents of Russia“, „Sins of populism“) -Highly moralizing discourse + suppresion of policy positions – unrealistic (?) expections and possible dissapointment (electoral mobilization) -Durability of the antipopulist „glue“ + the context of the lack of mainstream opposition -Reinforcing of pro-Western orientation + weakening of the Visegrad Four (HUN) - ̶ ̶ Adobe Systems Conlusions ̶A major change in the logic of party system competition ̶Emergence of populist – anti/populist divide ̶Polarization of politics ̶The Czech Republic as a case of „full“ anti-populism going beyond a mere negative campaigning ̶Usefulness of distinguishing between ideational and performative dimensions of anti-populism