TY - JOUR
T1 - Populism, blame shifting and the crisis
T2 - discourse strategies in Portuguese political parties
AU - Lisi, Marco
AU - Borghetto, Enrico
PY - 2018/10/2
Y1 - 2018/10/2
N2 - Populist parties have been gaining ground in European political systems. Against this backcloth, Portugal stands out as the only Southern European country in which traditional mainstream parties have not faced a sharp rise in populist challengers. This article relies on content analysis of election manifestos to examine the use of populist claims by the main Portuguese parties before and after the crisis (1995–2015). Our findings reveal that populist rhetoric has been used mainly by left-wing radical parties as a wedge to disrupt a decade-old status quo. Moreover, we did not find a significant increase in the frequency of populist rhetorical elements after the crisis, either in mainstream or challenger parties. Overall, in the Portuguese case, ideology is the most important factor that explains the adoption of a populist discourse.
AB - Populist parties have been gaining ground in European political systems. Against this backcloth, Portugal stands out as the only Southern European country in which traditional mainstream parties have not faced a sharp rise in populist challengers. This article relies on content analysis of election manifestos to examine the use of populist claims by the main Portuguese parties before and after the crisis (1995–2015). Our findings reveal that populist rhetoric has been used mainly by left-wing radical parties as a wedge to disrupt a decade-old status quo. Moreover, we did not find a significant increase in the frequency of populist rhetorical elements after the crisis, either in mainstream or challenger parties. Overall, in the Portuguese case, ideology is the most important factor that explains the adoption of a populist discourse.
KW - content analysis
KW - economic crisis
KW - political parties
KW - Populism
KW - Portugal
KW - radical left
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U2 - 10.1080/13608746.2018.1558606
DO - 10.1080/13608746.2018.1558606
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85059883570
SN - 1360-8746
VL - 23
SP - 405
EP - 427
JO - South European Society And Politics
JF - South European Society And Politics
IS - 4
ER -