Emotion in Populism

This chapter examines the emotion dimension of populist performance. After presenting an outline of the most important emotions involved in populist discourse, grounded in current theories of emotion/affect, it presents a series of examples from the UK, Germany, Spain, and the USA, showing how the emotional dimension is represented and exploited. These examples illustrate the key role of anger and resentment in driving the populist impulse for change, indicating how politicians use subtle discursive techniques to invoke anger and even encourage violence without taking responsibility for such provocations. They also demonstrate how positive emotions associated with national/group identity are harnessed by political leaders in this context. The important role of (false) dichotomies and end-scale gradations is discussed, as is the emotional dynamics that provides the inner logic of populism.