Authentic Expertise: Andrej Babiš and the Technocratic Populist Performance During the COVID-19 Crisis

This article studies how a technocratic populist can visually perform the authenticity and connection to ‘the low’ that is key to a populist performance while also maintaining the performance of expertise that is central to technocratic populist success. It relies on the case study of Czech prime mi...

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Autor principal:	Ilana Hartikainen
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	technocratic populism performance visual politics Andrej babiš Facebook COVID-19 Political science J
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/5bd139323c41402aa779865c48c36b8a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:5bd139323c41402aa779865c48c36b8a2021-11-22T06:24:22ZAuthentic Expertise: Andrej Babiš and the Technocratic Populist Performance During the COVID-19 Crisis2673-314510.3389/fpos.2021.734093https://doaj.org/article/5bd139323c41402aa779865c48c36b8a2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpos.2021.734093/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/2673-3145This article studies how a technocratic populist can visually perform the authenticity and connection to ‘the low’ that is key to a populist performance while also maintaining the performance of expertise that is central to technocratic populist success. It relies on the case study of Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš and uses Facebook data from his profile in March and September–October 2020, the two peak moments of the crisis in the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. After offering a timeline of the Czech COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, it applies a dramaturgical analysis to four representative photos from Babiš’ Facebook page. It finds that Babiš was able to simultaneously articulate both expertise and authenticity, thereby both creating a connection to ‘the people’ while also articulating himself as an expert capable of handling the pandemic. He articulated expertise through a technocratic bodily performance, presenting himself as a cosmopolitan leader with international symbols of power like neutral-colored suits and elegant surroundings. At the same time, he also articulated himself as an authentic politician by showing his Facebook followers backstage imagery like a disorganized table and by showing himself as a busy man and an exceptionally hard worker. By illuminating the visual performance of technocratic populism, it offers insight into how technocratic populists constitute the expertise that their success rests on and that can also pose a threat to democratic societies, especially in a time of crisis.Ilana HartikainenFrontiers Media S.A.articletechnocratic populismperformancevisual politicsAndrej babišFacebookCOVID-19Political scienceJENFrontiers in Political Science, Vol 3 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	technocratic populism performance visual politics Andrej babiš Facebook COVID-19 Political science J
spellingShingle	technocratic populism performance visual politics Andrej babiš Facebook COVID-19 Political science J Ilana Hartikainen Authentic Expertise: Andrej Babiš and the Technocratic Populist Performance During the COVID-19 Crisis
description	This article studies how a technocratic populist can visually perform the authenticity and connection to ‘the low’ that is key to a populist performance while also maintaining the performance of expertise that is central to technocratic populist success. It relies on the case study of Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš and uses Facebook data from his profile in March and September–October 2020, the two peak moments of the crisis in the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. After offering a timeline of the Czech COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, it applies a dramaturgical analysis to four representative photos from Babiš’ Facebook page. It finds that Babiš was able to simultaneously articulate both expertise and authenticity, thereby both creating a connection to ‘the people’ while also articulating himself as an expert capable of handling the pandemic. He articulated expertise through a technocratic bodily performance, presenting himself as a cosmopolitan leader with international symbols of power like neutral-colored suits and elegant surroundings. At the same time, he also articulated himself as an authentic politician by showing his Facebook followers backstage imagery like a disorganized table and by showing himself as a busy man and an exceptionally hard worker. By illuminating the visual performance of technocratic populism, it offers insight into how technocratic populists constitute the expertise that their success rests on and that can also pose a threat to democratic societies, especially in a time of crisis.
format	article
author	Ilana Hartikainen
author_facet	Ilana Hartikainen
author_sort	Ilana Hartikainen
title	Authentic Expertise: Andrej Babiš and the Technocratic Populist Performance During the COVID-19 Crisis
title_short	Authentic Expertise: Andrej Babiš and the Technocratic Populist Performance During the COVID-19 Crisis
title_full	Authentic Expertise: Andrej Babiš and the Technocratic Populist Performance During the COVID-19 Crisis
title_fullStr	Authentic Expertise: Andrej Babiš and the Technocratic Populist Performance During the COVID-19 Crisis
title_full_unstemmed	Authentic Expertise: Andrej Babiš and the Technocratic Populist Performance During the COVID-19 Crisis
title_sort	authentic expertise: andrej babiš and the technocratic populist performance during the covid-19 crisis
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/5bd139323c41402aa779865c48c36b8a
work_keys_str_mv	AT ilanahartikainen authenticexpertiseandrejbabisandthetechnocraticpopulistperformanceduringthecovid19crisis
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Authentic Expertise: Andrej Babiš and the Technocratic Populist Performance During the COVID-19 Crisis

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