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Article published In:
Democracy and Discriminatory Strategies in Parliamentary Discourse
Edited by Karin Bischof and Cornelia Ilie
[Journal of Language and Politics 17:5] 2018
► pp. 636–654

Constructing ‘the people’

An intersectional analysis of right-wing concepts of democracy and citizenship in Austria

| Danube University Krems
ORCID logo | FH Campus Wien (University of Applied Sciences)
| University of Vienna

This article analyses right-wing populist constructions of ‘the people’ emerging at the intersections of ethnicized ‘othering’ and gendered differences within groups. We argue that these constructions are in stark contrast to the liberal notion of citizenship, which we understand to be the basis for the demos. Right-wing populism constructs its politics of belonging beyond rights, i.e. ‘the people’ is defined as a community through identity with the political leader, rather than as a political entity marked by different interests and endowed with rights, which could be represented politically. We argue that it is important to not only analyse practices of ‘othering’ and exclusion, but also the appeal to the ‘we’-group in order to understand right-wing populist success. Empirically our Critical Frame Analysis focuses on the Austrian context and on the FPÖ, which has been a forerunner in the ‘modernization’ of right-wing extremism and the development of right-wing populism in Europe.

Keywords: right-wing populism, extremism, Austria, democracy, gender, citizenship
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Globalized struggles for right-wing political hegemony
  • 2.Context: Austria as a laboratory of European right-wing populism and extremism
  • 3.Theoretical background, material and method: Analysing strategic framing
  • 4.‘The people’ in three discursive dimensions. Results
    • 4.1Values: One set for ‘us’ and one for ‘others’?
    • 4.2‘Common sense’: Othering and exclusion as self-evident
    • 4.3Policy-proposals: Consequences of ‘othering’ and exclusion
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 September 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.18013.may
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