Excluding Emotions: The Performative Function of Populism

<span class="abs_content">Populists are often excluded from political life on the basis that they are too emotional. Both social movements as well as political parties who are labelled as populist are accused of using demagoguery and manipulation in order to attract support and new m...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Emmy Eklundh
Format:	article
Language:	EN
Published:	Coordinamento SIBA 2020
Subjects:	populism emotions exclusion politics of emotions political theory laclau Political science (General) JA1-92
Online Access:	https://doaj.org/article/63cddc7eed3f4aeebf0c6e9615f87f6d
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:63cddc7eed3f4aeebf0c6e9615f87f6d
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:63cddc7eed3f4aeebf0c6e9615f87f6d2021-11-21T15:11:41ZExcluding Emotions: The Performative Function of Populism1972-76232035-660910.1285/i20356609v13i1p107https://doaj.org/article/63cddc7eed3f4aeebf0c6e9615f87f6d2020-04-01T00:00:00Zhttp://siba-ese.unisalento.it/index.php/paco/article/view/21983https://doaj.org/toc/1972-7623https://doaj.org/toc/2035-6609<span class="abs_content">Populists are often excluded from political life on the basis that they are too emotional. Both social movements as well as political parties who are labelled as populist are accused of using demagoguery and manipulation in order to attract support and new membership. Often, these critiques emanate from the political establishment, creating a division between emotional and rational actors in politics. In this article, I argue that instead of seeing populism as a nominal or ordinal category, we should look at how the term itself has performative properties. The article is interested in how populism as a concept is used as a tool for exclusion, and how being ‘too emotional’ is used as justification for excluding certain actors. This article first contends that this perspective is endemic to political and social theory, and has long been utilised to marginalise women, non-Europeans, or young people. Second, the article demonstrates how this perspective also pervades much of contemporary studies on populism, which do not sufficiently recognise the political implications of employing a strict divide between emotion and reason. Third, the article further contends that by using a Laclauian framework which sees politics as equal to hegemony as equal to populism, one can conclude that populist actors are no different from other political actors; emotions and affects are always central to any political identity. Instead, the division between emotional and rational in politics serves to sediments exclusionary practices against newcomers and challengers of the status quo. I conclude by using the Laclauian framework, focus can be turned to the performative function of populism, and its political implications.</span><br />Emmy EklundhCoordinamento SIBAarticlepopulismemotionsexclusionpolitics of emotionspolitical theorylaclauPolitical science (General)JA1-92ENPartecipazione e Conflitto, Vol 13, Iss 1, Pp 107-131 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	populism emotions exclusion politics of emotions political theory laclau Political science (General) JA1-92
spellingShingle	populism emotions exclusion politics of emotions political theory laclau Political science (General) JA1-92 Emmy Eklundh Excluding Emotions: The Performative Function of Populism
description	<span class="abs_content">Populists are often excluded from political life on the basis that they are too emotional. Both social movements as well as political parties who are labelled as populist are accused of using demagoguery and manipulation in order to attract support and new membership. Often, these critiques emanate from the political establishment, creating a division between emotional and rational actors in politics. In this article, I argue that instead of seeing populism as a nominal or ordinal category, we should look at how the term itself has performative properties. The article is interested in how populism as a concept is used as a tool for exclusion, and how being ‘too emotional’ is used as justification for excluding certain actors. This article first contends that this perspective is endemic to political and social theory, and has long been utilised to marginalise women, non-Europeans, or young people. Second, the article demonstrates how this perspective also pervades much of contemporary studies on populism, which do not sufficiently recognise the political implications of employing a strict divide between emotion and reason. Third, the article further contends that by using a Laclauian framework which sees politics as equal to hegemony as equal to populism, one can conclude that populist actors are no different from other political actors; emotions and affects are always central to any political identity. Instead, the division between emotional and rational in politics serves to sediments exclusionary practices against newcomers and challengers of the status quo. I conclude by using the Laclauian framework, focus can be turned to the performative function of populism, and its political implications.</span><br />
format	article
author	Emmy Eklundh
author_facet	Emmy Eklundh
author_sort	Emmy Eklundh
title	Excluding Emotions: The Performative Function of Populism
title_short	Excluding Emotions: The Performative Function of Populism
title_full	Excluding Emotions: The Performative Function of Populism
title_fullStr	Excluding Emotions: The Performative Function of Populism
title_full_unstemmed	Excluding Emotions: The Performative Function of Populism
title_sort	excluding emotions: the performative function of populism
publisher	Coordinamento SIBA
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/63cddc7eed3f4aeebf0c6e9615f87f6d
work_keys_str_mv	AT emmyeklundh excludingemotionstheperformativefunctionofpopulism
_version_	1718418768571400192

Excluding Emotions: The Performative Function of Populism

Similar Items