Fighting Fire with Fire : Mainstream adoption of the populist political style in the 2014 Europe debates between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage
(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:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/29359eeb-b811-40e8-b9d0-c57853f747cd
- author
- Bossetta, Michael LU
- publishing date
- 2017
- 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}}, }