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Fighting Fire with Fire : Mainstream adoption of the populist political style in the 2014 Europe debates between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage

Bossetta, Michael LU (2017) In British Journal of Politics and International Relations 19(4). p.715-734
Abstract
Advancing the concept of populism as a political style, this study compares the debate performances of two British party leaders, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage, as they clashed in a pair of televised debates over Britain’s EU membership ahead of the2014 European Parliament elections. The argument tested is thatunder certain conditions, mainstream politicians will adopt a populist communicationstyle while retaining a non-populist agenda. A mixed methods approach combines computationaltext analysis with a qualitative rhetorical analysis to demonstrate how the populist and non-populist style can be distinguished and compared systematically. The results suggest that Clegg, althoughmaintaining a... (More)
Advancing the concept of populism as a political style, this study compares the debate performances of two British party leaders, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage, as they clashed in a pair of televised debates over Britain’s EU membership ahead of the2014 European Parliament elections. The argument tested is thatunder certain conditions, mainstream politicians will adopt a populist communicationstyle while retaining a non-populist agenda. A mixed methods approach combines computationaltext analysis with a qualitative rhetorical analysis to demonstrate how the populist and non-populist style can be distinguished and compared systematically. The results suggest that Clegg, althoughmaintaining a non-populist ideology, adopts features of the populiststyle after losing the first debate. Farage’s communication style, conversely, remains stable to the point of statistical significance. This suggests that one explanatory factor ofpopulists’ success is the consistencyof their message and rhetorical delivery, bolstering their perceived authenticity among voters. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
populism, rhetoric, political communication, text analysis
in
British Journal of Politics and International Relations
volume
19
issue
4
pages
715 - 734
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:85032368541
ISSN
1369-1481
DOI
10.1177/1369148117715646
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
29359eeb-b811-40e8-b9d0-c57853f747cd
date added to LUP
2020-10-15 22:48:29
date last changed
2022-03-26 06:57:29
@article{29359eeb-b811-40e8-b9d0-c57853f747cd,
  abstract     = {{Advancing  the  concept  of  populism  as  a  political  style,  this  study  compares  the  debate performances of two British party leaders, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage, as they clashed in a pair  of  televised  debates  over  Britain’s  EU  membership ahead  of  the2014  European Parliament  elections.  The  argument tested  is  thatunder  certain  conditions,  mainstream politicians will adopt a populist communicationstyle while retaining a non-populist agenda. A mixed methods approach combines computationaltext analysis with a qualitative rhetorical analysis  to  demonstrate  how  the  populist  and  non-populist  style  can  be distinguished  and compared systematically. The results suggest that Clegg, althoughmaintaining a non-populist ideology,   adopts features   of the   populiststyle   after   losing   the   first   debate. Farage’s communication  style,  conversely,  remains stable to  the  point  of statistical  significance.  This suggests that one explanatory factor ofpopulists’ success is the consistencyof their message and rhetorical delivery, bolstering their perceived authenticity among voters.}},
  author       = {{Bossetta, Michael}},
  issn         = {{1369-1481}},
  keywords     = {{populism; rhetoric; political communication; text analysis}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{715--734}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{British Journal of Politics and International Relations}},
  title        = {{Fighting Fire with Fire : Mainstream adoption of the populist political style in the 2014 Europe debates between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/85420406/Bossetta_2017_Mainstream_Adoption_of_the_Populist_Political_Style_Pre_Print.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1177/1369148117715646}},
  volume       = {{19}},
  year         = {{2017}},
}