Populist political right opinions and political trust among Norwegian youth

Recent decades have seen the growth of various strands of right-wing populist political orientations, where populism and critique of immigration policies have been central. These ideological developments have caused concern for the legitimacy of social and political institutions. The question explored in this paper, based on Norwegian survey data, is ‘Which types of right political orientations exist among young people, and how do these political attitudes affect trust in social and political institutions?’ The results reveal the existence of both a populist ‘new right’ political orientation similar to the ideology of the Progress Party and a nativist ideology. The new right orientation contains two sets of variables: (i) economic liberalism/state scepticism and (ii) nationalist values. For trust in political institutions, the emerging picture is complex because the nationalist dimension of both the populist orientation and the nativist ideological orientation implies a high level of trust in political institutions. To the extent the new right political orientations causes mistrust, it seems to come from the liberal economic, anti-statist values included in this ideology. Based on these findings, future researchers should distinguish more clearly between the ideological dimensions going into populist political right orientations and the relationship between attitudes and more practical implications of such ideologies.     

Blood Transfusion in Room 223

How educators handle conflicting views of Populism is important in engaging students in critical thinking.     

The Resistible Rise of Sarah Palin: Continuity and Paradox in the American Right Wing1

Sarah Palin clearly holds a powerful appeal for a right‐wing constituency although even her most fervent followers may doubt that she is electable. This article examines the basis of her appeal. We argue that it can be summed up as an appeal to American authenticity, which consists of several elements: the valorization of small town ordinary life takes second place to faith and religious commitment; an equal faith in American exceptionality implies that Americans should never be apologetic about their country and never waver in their belief in its special greatness; the final elements are a foundational libertarian creed and a peculiar brand of right‐wing populism. However, for all her affinities with classical right‐wing sentiment, Sarah Palin, we argue, brings something new to the mix: a genuinely maverick right‐wing feminism. That is why in the end, we call the Palin phenomenon a paradoxical one.     

拉美民众主义的特点及其演变

民众主义是20世纪拉丁美洲现代化进程中具有深远影响的政治思潮、政治运动、政策倾向和政权形式,其主要特点可概括为城市性、多阶级性、广泛性、选举性、大众性及魅力领袖主导性.拉美民众主义经历了一个由盛而衰的过程.早期民众主义表现为20世纪初自由主义改革运动,30至60年代民众主义运动处于鼎盛期,70年代后趋于衰落,但至今在拉美政治中仍有一定影响.     

警惕社会主义新农村建设过程中的平民主义倾向

平民主义对中国革命和现代化进程有着深远影响,在社会主义新农村建设过程中同样应该警惕平民主义的倾向。关于社会主义新农村建设的政策文件虽然内容比较系统全面,却没有涉及农民生产方式、生活方式和思维方式的现代转变,在某种程度上带有平民主义的色彩。现代化的核心是人的现代化,建设社会主义新农村必须坚持把农民现代化作为核心内容。     

POPULISM AND SPECTACLE

In On Populist Reason Ernesto Laclau proposes that the reputedly ‘empty’ rhetorical excess of populism constitutes the ontological and aesthetic ground on which the existence of an entity called ‘the people’ depends. This essay considers the tensions and affinities between the particular set of aesthetic relations that Laclau attributes to populist rhetoric, on the one hand, and the set of apparently techno-economic relations that Guy Debord describes as the logic of spectacle in The Society of the Spectacle, on the other, arguing that Laclau's conception of populism compels us to recast the ontological problem of the relation that Debord describes between the social and the spectacular in expressly aesthetic terms. Beginning from this premise, the essay contends that the ‘empty’ aesthetic conventions likewise associated with spectacular entertainment – and in particular, the staging of the relation between audience and onstage spectacle that defines the variety showcase aesthetic in this account – enact a set of tropic relations that constitutes the audience as a generalized figure of ‘the people’ in much the same terms as Laclau's rhetoric. Tracing this aesthetic logic through an especially charged performance from the history of blackface minstrelsy, the essay concludes by considering how such a staging of the relation between populism and spectacle might challenge the dominant models for understanding what constitutes ‘popular’ aesthetic form within Cultural Studies, and in the process, afford new critical insights into the formal dimension of Laclau's political logic.     

试论民粹主义在现代中国的转化和演变

民粹主义一开始进入中国现代知识分子的视野就被紧密联系在民族命运和革命前途之上。在整个现代文艺思潮中,随着"为工农兵服务"的文艺方向的确立,民粹主义作为一种文化思想、文艺思潮,它在文化思想和文学艺术领域产生了巨大影响,牵引着现代文学的走向。     

"执中致和"本义考

"执中致和"是构建和谐社会的重要思想资源."和"表示协调不同声音,构成美妙的乐章.当人们认识到"和实生物,同则不继"的事物发展规律后,便逐步向认识、政治法律、伦理道德、心灵审美各领域拓进,要义是将利益不同、政治要求不同的力量协调起来,实现国安民悦的"大和"目标.甲骨文"中"为"王旗"形,表示王法之中道,后伸延为道德之中正,认识之正确,以及人性之至诚、人情之中节."执中致和"就是执政者以其中直之性和中节之情,实行合乎中道的法律制度,让矛盾中的各方各得其位,使创生中的万众各张其性.但由于"执中"权在君不在民,而原本作为协助君王"执中致和"的士人,在利禄的诱惑下成为官僚机构的一员之后,竟投王所好,使君权失去了稳定的、理性的制约力量,这样,其"中"不中、其"和"不和便成为经常的社会现象.在经过长期的治乱循环之后,人民最终以民主革命的形式推翻了君权专制制度.而今天,当我们运用"执中致和"的思想资源服务于构建"和谐社会"时,一定要忠实地分析这一理论的本义,注意克服其主客观的历史局限性,使它重新焕发出新的活力.     

Mapping Right-Wing Women’s Policy Priorities in Latin America

ABSTRACT

Do right-wing women hold unique policy priorities from that of left-wing women and right-wing men? And do right-wing women legislators represent the priorities of right-wing citizens? Right-wing women share unique gendered socialization experiences with left-wing women, but their ideology informs values and attitudes critical to policy preference formation. Political representation theories suggest that women legislators should hold distinct incentives to represent female constituents. However, institutional theories suggest right-wing women legislators may face different incentives that limit the extent to which they represent right-wing female constituents. To evaluate our expectations, we leverage survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project and the Parliamentary Elites of Latin America. We demonstrate how right-wing women citizens differ from left-wing women citizens across a range of policy priorities. Then, we evaluate elite priorities for these same policy issues. We find little evidence for policy priority congruency between women citizens and women legislators on the right.     

National Politics,Neighborly Politics: How Trump’s Election Impacted a Black and White Detroit Community

Most research on right-wing populism has tried to explain the rise of populist movements and parties. While some have studied how neighborhood contexts and histories shape voting patterns, few have examined what happens locally after votes are cast. This article draws on three years of ethnographic research while the author lived in Brightmoor, a majority black, minority white poor depopulated Detroit neighborhood, to show how Trump’s politics shaped local expressions and experiences of racism. First, I show how white Trump supporters expressed distinct approaches to xenophobic ethnonationalism and racial politics. Trump’s surge empowered many to broadcast anti-immigrant sentiments, while they continued to put interactional and discursive work into not being seen as racist. Many also applied a “Trump lens” to local interactions and geographies and rendered minorities salient under Trump politics hypervisible. Second, I show how black residents equated xenophobic ethnonationalism with antiblack racism: seeing through pro-Trump whites’ attempts to separate these. Some also applied a new “Trump lens” to interactions and geographies, using the category of Trump voter and a sense of the voting map to anticipate and make sense of racist interactions. This article offers new insights into the local impacts of a national surge in right-wing populism.