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Activity Funded

UNpacking POPulism: Comparing the formation of emotion narratives and their effects on political behaviour

Desmontar o Populismo: Comparando a formação de narrativas da emoção e os seus efeitos no comportamento político

Reference
PTDC/CPO-CPO/3850/2020
Project Start Date
2021-03-22
Project End Date
2025-03-21
Principal Investigator
Coinvestigator
Scientific Area
Social sciences
Funding Program
Concurso para Financiamento de Projetos de Investigação Científica e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Todos os Domínios Científicos - 2020

Abstract

While populism may be considered alien to democratic practices, or a degenerated and irrational expression of political discourse, populist parties master the use of emotion in politics. In the rich body of literature on populism, only a few studies address the entanglement of populism and emotions, although many acknowledge it exists. Moreover, these studies generally focus on the mobilisation of single negative emotions and privilege quantitative methodologies alone. More importantly, they mostly approach emotions as if they constitute a descriptive property of populist speech acts and actors, thus missing the opportunity to engage with emotions as fundamental categories in the analysis of populist politics. UNpacking POPulist emotion narratives enables a deeper analysis of how populist phenomena constitute themselves and how they impact on political behaviour. The literature increasingly shows that in order to UNderstand the POPping of populism in European politics (and beyond), a much deeper engagement with emotions is needed. Outstanding evidence is expected comparing Portugal - until recently considered an exception - and Italy - a country quite experienced with populism. UNPOP seeks to unravel the conditions enabling and favouring right-wing populist politics, engaging with the consensual and yet understudied assumption that the mobilisation of emotions is a fundamental cause. In order to unpack this constitutive dimension of populist politics, UNPOP advances and applies a mixed methodology and develops a comparative research plan focusing on ‘EMOTION NARRATIVES’. These are frames in which both positive and negative emotions are mobilised to stimulate political behaviour, in order to define both ingroup and outgroup characteristics. UNPOP aims to contribute to democratic theorisation by defining an innovative methodology to analyse the construction of populist politics, and offering solid empirical evidence of mechanisms employed by right-wing populist parties in Portugal and Italy to impact on political behaviour.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais (UC CES)

Other Institutions

  • Universidade de Coimbra (UC)
  • Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Investigação em Neuropsicologia e Intervenção Cognitivo-Comportamental (UC CINEICC)
  • Universidade de Coimbra Centro de Estudos Sociais (UC CES)

Funding 249.923,10 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

249.923,10 €