The ideal model of democracy is based on the assumption that voters make rational, informed decisions on public issues based on knowledge and consideration of arguments. However, individuals obviously rely on their emotions as voters as much as as consumers. Political communication that appeals to emotions is mostly seen in the context of populist politics as a threat to democracy. This presentation will examine, on the one hand, whether populism as a political communication strategy can be used to strengthen democracy, for example, by increasing involvement in public issues and mobilising civic activism. Considering the importance of emotions leads to a new definition of democracy. On the other hand, the paper will also address the question of how public policy measures can be developed to counter manipulative populist political communication, including disinformation in particular.
3. Democracy and the public sphere
• the public is a political institution
• a mediator between politics and society, 'a space for the articulation of opinions and
issues' (Gerhards & Neidhardt, 1991: 40)
• the term "embodies a kind of 'volonté general', an elementary-democratic quality"
(Gerhards & Neidhardt, 199: 31)
• Habermasian public sphere
• universal accessibility
• general openness to issues and contributions
• "debates over problem definition and proposed solutions are decided by argument"
(Peters, 2007: 619)
• democracy = decision-making based on rational, argumentative debate and
objective assessment of political performance
4. “Rational decision making is a strict procedure utilising objective knowledge and logic.”
“It involves identifying the problem to solve, gathering facts, identifying options and
outcomes, analysing them, considering all the relationships and selecting the decision.”
selecting the decision.”
(Adam, Kuchta, Stanek 2020)
Democracy based on rational decision
5. Rational voter decision?
• Starting point: trust in political messages
• However: „in Hungary, the characteristics of the functioning of a plural political
public sphere have recently developed, within which society can assess what is
said in public debates with due care” (Decision of the Constitutional Court
5/2015. (II. 25.))
Hungary
Last PM debate in 2006
6. Rational voter decision?
Limits to rational political decision-making
• Lack of access to reliable information and different point of views
• Lack of understanding of political messages or interest
• Lack of attention capacity – shortcuts
• Negative affects of media –filter bubbles, propaganda, media logic
7. Populism and media logic
• Dramatization
• Polarisation
• Prioritisation of conflict
• Crisis
8. Populism and emotionalization
• Tendency to frame society in danger, narrative of the crisis, the
exclusion of minorities (Alonso-Muñoz and Casero-Ripollés, 2020, 2021)
• „Emotions have the potential to persuade and mobilize voters„(Brader,
2005)
• “Political parties use specific message features to trigger negative
emotional states to mobilize their followers” (Jost et al., 2020)
9. The populist persuasion
„The mobilizing effect especially true for negative but not for positive
emotional states” (Valentino et al, 2011)
Populist discourse is a “manipulation strategy” that ”plays with
emotions to the detriment of political reason” (Alonso-Munoz, Casero-Ripollés, 2023)
Populism is characterized by “the reliance on gut feelings rather than
on rational facts” (Wirz, 2018)
10. Populism and emotionalization
KEYWORD: DANGER
• From anything slightly different from or unfamiliar to the average
voter
Text in image: ”Do you fear that your child is
exposed by sexual propaganda?”
The Hungarian government's poster campaign
against LGBTQ communities promoting the
National Consultation, 2021
11. The populist persuasion
1. Fear and crisis – (it already exists)
2. Connect it to an enemy image
3. Represent the solution with the savior
Tex in Image: ”Will György Soros attack again?”
Government communication promoting the National
Consultation, 2021
12. Populism as a communication style
• ‘For the people’, ‘against the elite’ (Mudde and Kaltwasser 2017, Alonso-Muñoz and Casero-Ripolléz 2020)
• Us / them, out-group / in-group narrative
• Negative portrayal of political actors, minorities, other groups -
othering, alienating
• “The populist communication style is mainly characterized by being
simple, emotional and negative” (Engesser et al. 2017)
13. Simplification
• “Populist actors tent to reduce the complexity of messages” (Canovan, 1999)
• “with the use of simple and colloquial language, with understandable
terms for all social classes, and the inclusion of stereotypes” (Strömbäck, 2008;
Oliver and Rahn, 2016)
14. Simplification
• BINARY OPPOSITIONS - Understandable category system +
emotionalization
• FAMILIARITY well-known cultural codes, metaphors, archetypes
• SYMBOLS – information shortcuts - the condensation of meaning
15. Personalization
The performative power of populism rests on the followers’ belief that the iconic
body of the populist leader represents their own identity, “concretely and
physically” (Casullo and Colalongo 2022: 63)
“The increased importance of individual politicians at the expense of political
groups such as parties has been labelled personalization of politics”
(Rahat & Sheafer, 2007; Balmas et al. 2014).
“Countries’ leaders serve as cognitive shortcuts to navigate increasingly confusing
information landscapes across the globe” (Balmas and Sheafer 2013)
• Political personality branding – authenticity – emotional attachment
16. Emotions in populist communication
NEGATIVE
exclusive
Fear, anger
Narrative of crisis
Othering
Collective hate
POSITIVE
Inclusive
Love, Being Moved
Us as a community
Collective action
17. Inclusive populism – ‘Kama muta’ emotion
‘moved by love’ – evoked by the intensification of communal sharing (Fiske et al. 2019)
the emotion contains positive affect, specific sensations: goosebumps, chills, and feelings of
warmth in the chest, motivates prosocial behavior
“The effect of kama muta is to motivate increased affective devotion and moral
commitment” (Fiske 2017)
• Intensification: images of interaction
• A communal relation that is in danger
• A problem is presented and community links are emphasised to solve the problem
• Groupist rhetoric (e.g., “we/our,” “helping each other,” and “together”)
18. CONCLUSION
the effectiveness of the populist communication technique lies in its
simplicity and emotionalization, but the mobilising effect can also be
achieved by displaying positive emotions and presenting reliable
messages
emotions play a particularly important role in voters' political decision-
making, and we need to pay much more attention to the impact of
emotions in political communication
