Political Discourse and Right-Wing Populism
Summary
The study of political discourse and right-wing populism has grown in response to the transnational resurgence of movements that harness anti-elitist rhetoric, nativist appeals and crisis narratives. Right-wing populists deploy a repertoire of discursive strategies—framing, moral panics, nationalist tropes and digital amplification—to construct a dichotomy between a virtuous ‘people’ and corrupt ‘others’. Recent work emphasises the intersection of language, media and policy, examining how discursive elements such as fear of migration, sovereignty narratives and cultural decline are woven into broader political agendas. Methodologies range from critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to computational sentiment analysis, enabling scholars to map semantic shifts and identify networks of influence. Research highlights the role of online platforms in accelerating the normalisation of radical positions, as well as countermeasures by civil society and regulatory bodies to moderate hateful narratives. Understanding these dynamics is vital for designing interventions that foster inclusive dialogue, inform policy on digital governance and mitigate polarisation in an era of increasing media fragmentation.
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Political Discourse and Right-Wing Populism publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in political discourse and right-wing populism across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Populism: A political approach that pits ‘the people’ against ‘the elite’, emphasising moral dichotomies and broad claims of popular sovereignty.
Discursive normalisation: The process by which radical ideas become accepted as ordinary through repeated framing and gradual shifts in language.
Framing: The selective presentation of issues or events in discourse to shape perception and influence interpretation.
Legitimation strategies: Rhetorical and discursive techniques used to justify and validate policies or ideologies within public debates.
References
- ‘Battleship at the port of Europe’: Italy's closed-port policy and its legitimizing narratives. Political Geography (2023).
- Discursive shifts and the normalisation of racism: imaginaries of immigration, moral panics and the discourse of contemporary right-wing populism. Social Semiotics (2020).
- The “New Normal” and “Pandemic Populism”: The COVID-19 Crisis and Anti-Hygienic Mobilisation of the Far-Right. Social Sciences (2020).
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