Abstract
Populism is undoubtedly one of the most salient academic issues of the past decade. More particularly and due to its rise in both Europe and the United States, there is a growing interest on right-wing populism, an exclusionary and illiberal form of populism that has been able to attain certain success in several countries. Even though in the last years the literature around the topic has been expanded, some of the debates around it remain underexplored.This thesis focuses on one of those debates: the intersection between nationalism and populism in right-wing populist parties. It analyses this intersection by using a discourse analysis methodology based on Ernesto Laclau’s works, thus conducting a similar examination than the ones presented by the Essex School of Discourse Analysis and other researchers working within the framework referred to as ‘Discourse Theory’, although in this work there is an attempt to build a more operational and rigorous approach. The empirical analysis focuses on party literature and carefully selected candidate speeches at a national level.
The thesis centres on three case studies: Rassemblement National, Lega and Vox. This selection allows to compare contexts that are similar and different enough to provide a pertinent comparison. A small-N qualitative comparative analysis will allow to engage in thick descriptions that can provide the type of examination that the research question requires. The analysed period will be the decade that goes from 2011 to 2021, in which both an economic crisis and the irruption of issues related to sovereignty and identity arose in the three countries, paving the way for the emergence of their respective right-wing populist forces.
| Date of Award | 1 Apr 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Nagore Calvo Mendizabal (Supervisor) & Russell Foster (Supervisor) |