Folkviljans allvetare: teknopopulismens framväxt ur ett historiskt perspektiv
(2024) STVK04 20241Department of Political Science
- Abstract (Swedish)
- It is sometimes said that modern politics has lost track of ideology and vision - that personal charisma and expertise is rewarded more than firm beliefs and connections with an organised movement. In their book Technopopulism: the New Logic of Democratic Politics, Christopher J. Bickerton and Carlo Invernizzi Accetti go beyond such suspicions. Their main argument is that the organisational political logic, or the way in which politicians compete for elected office, has changed in the Western world. Moving from the ideological logic that dominated during the main part of the 20th century, contemporary politics is guided by and organised around the technopopulist logic. Reacting to numerous societal and sociological changes, all politicians... (More)
- It is sometimes said that modern politics has lost track of ideology and vision - that personal charisma and expertise is rewarded more than firm beliefs and connections with an organised movement. In their book Technopopulism: the New Logic of Democratic Politics, Christopher J. Bickerton and Carlo Invernizzi Accetti go beyond such suspicions. Their main argument is that the organisational political logic, or the way in which politicians compete for elected office, has changed in the Western world. Moving from the ideological logic that dominated during the main part of the 20th century, contemporary politics is guided by and organised around the technopopulist logic. Reacting to numerous societal and sociological changes, all politicians now face incentives to speak for society as a whole, rather than a specific section of the population. As a result, the authors claim, populist claims to embody the will of an undivided people and technocratic claims to possess the competence to bring those wishes into reality have become increasingly prominent and widespread in the political discourse.
This thesis aims to put this claim to the test. While numerous studies have used Bickerton and Invernizzi Accetti’s theory to study individual political movements and their use of technocratic and populist modes of operation, none has investigated the historical development of the technopopulist logic. Developing an operational framework consisting of technocratic and populist modes of discourse as exemplified by Bickerton and Invernizzi Accetti, this study analyses five final debates ahead of Swedish national government elections. The results suggest that both technocracy and populism have increased dramatically in the debate since 1960 and are now used by all contenders, giving support to the theory. Furthermore, technocratic traits have constantly been at higher levels than populist ones. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9153128
- author
- Tinghammar Jönsson, Lo LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- STVK04 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- teknopopulism, teknokrati, populism, slutdebatt, debattklimat, diskurs
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 9153128
- date added to LUP
- 2024-07-18 13:36:38
- date last changed
- 2024-07-18 13:36:38
@misc{9153128,
abstract = {{It is sometimes said that modern politics has lost track of ideology and vision - that personal charisma and expertise is rewarded more than firm beliefs and connections with an organised movement. In their book Technopopulism: the New Logic of Democratic Politics, Christopher J. Bickerton and Carlo Invernizzi Accetti go beyond such suspicions. Their main argument is that the organisational political logic, or the way in which politicians compete for elected office, has changed in the Western world. Moving from the ideological logic that dominated during the main part of the 20th century, contemporary politics is guided by and organised around the technopopulist logic. Reacting to numerous societal and sociological changes, all politicians now face incentives to speak for society as a whole, rather than a specific section of the population. As a result, the authors claim, populist claims to embody the will of an undivided people and technocratic claims to possess the competence to bring those wishes into reality have become increasingly prominent and widespread in the political discourse.
This thesis aims to put this claim to the test. While numerous studies have used Bickerton and Invernizzi Accetti’s theory to study individual political movements and their use of technocratic and populist modes of operation, none has investigated the historical development of the technopopulist logic. Developing an operational framework consisting of technocratic and populist modes of discourse as exemplified by Bickerton and Invernizzi Accetti, this study analyses five final debates ahead of Swedish national government elections. The results suggest that both technocracy and populism have increased dramatically in the debate since 1960 and are now used by all contenders, giving support to the theory. Furthermore, technocratic traits have constantly been at higher levels than populist ones.}},
author = {{Tinghammar Jönsson, Lo}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Folkviljans allvetare: teknopopulismens framväxt ur ett historiskt perspektiv}},
year = {{2024}},
}