The Mesmerising Message: The Diffusion of Populism in Public Debates in Western European Media
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 13 September 2013
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Political Studies
- Vol. 62 (4), 726-744
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12074
Abstract
Electorally, Western European populist political parties have been rather successful in the last two decades. But how pervasive is their actual populist message? Although some scholars have looked at the diffusion of this message, they have only focused on the arena of party politics. Research on how widespread populism is beyond the party political sphere is still in its infancy. This study looks at populism in public debates in the media. Based on a content analysis of opinion articles in newspapers in five Western European countries, I demonstrate that these debates have become more populist over the years, and that the degree of populism is strongly related to the success of populist parties. This indicates that populism is more widespread than previously assumed. I also show that letters are more populist than other opinion articles and that debates in tabloid media are not more populist than debates in elite media.Keywords
This publication has 55 references indexed in Scilit:
- Friend or foe? Right-wing populism and the popular press in Britain and the NetherlandsJournalism, 2011
- Explaining the Electoral Performance of Populist Parties: The Netherlands as a Case StudyPerspectives on European Politics and Society, 2011
- Populism and the Italian rightActa Politica, 2011
- Explaining the Success of Neo-Liberal Populist Parties: The Case of Lijst Dedecker in BelgiumPolitical Studies, 2010
- The Lega Nord Back in GovernmentWest European Politics, 2010
- Populism versus DemocracyPolitical Studies, 2007
- Charisma, Leader Effects and Support for Right-Wing Populist PartiesParty Politics, 2007
- From Vanguard of the Proletariat to Vox Populi: Left-Populism as a 'Shadow' of Contemporary SocialismSAIS Review of International Affairs, 2007
- News about the EU ConstitutionJournalism, 2005
- Clarifying a Contested Concept: Populism in the Study of Latin American PoliticsComparative Politics, 2001