Seongcheol Kims book is a unique and indispensable contribution to the debate on populism in East-Central Europe. It is the first in-depth and comparative analysis of populist discourse in the four Visegrd countries, covering the whole of the post-1989 period and using primary sources in their original language. The book is all the more important because it puts populism in the historical perspective of the post-communist transformation, showing a variety of manifestations, and stressing the need for careful, informed, and contextual analysis.
Paul Blokker,University of Bologna, Italy
By grounding his argumentation on a challenging post-foundational framework, which is then employed to illuminate contemporary politics in the Visegrd Four, Kim excels on two fronts. First, he offers a uniquely nuanced analysis of populism in the region, beyond stereotypical applications of the term. Second, he endows critical populism research with a comprehensive and illuminating take on concrete cases like Poland and Hungary, which are often neglected in this Laclau-inspired tradition.
Yannis Stavrakakis,Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Discourse, Hegemony, and Populism in the Visegrd Four
This is the first book-length account of populism in the Visegrd Four (V4) countries Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia for the first 30 years of multi-party competition since the transformative events of 198991 in Central and Eastern Europe.
Advancing a post-foundational approach to populism based on a semi-formal reading of Ernesto Laclaus theory, the book undertakes a detailed examination of how the people has been constructed in populist discourses in the party systems of the four countries since 1989. Drawing on a wealth of source material, the book offers both a wide-ranging and in-depth overview and classification of populism in the V4 in terms of discursive (e.g. centrist, conservative, left-wing, liberal, nationalist, social) and hegemonic type (e.g. authoritarian hegemonic, generational counter-hegemonic) alike.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of populism, party politics, and Central and Eastern Europe.
Seongcheol Kim is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Kassel, Germany, and a Visiting Researcher at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, Germany.
Routledge Studies in Extremism and Democracy
Series Editors: Caterina Froio
Sciences Po, Paris, France
Andrea L. P. Pirro
Scuola Normale Superiore, Florence, Italy
Stijn van Kessel
Queen Mary University of London, UK
Founding Series Editors: Roger Eatwell
University of Bath, UK
Cas Mudde
University of Antwerp-UFSIA, Belgium
This series covers academic studies within the broad fields of extremism and democracy, with volumes focusing on adjacent concepts such as populism, radicalism, and ideological/religious fundamentalism. These topics have been considered largely in isolation by scholars interested in the study of political parties, elections, social movements, activism, and radicalisation in democratic settings. A key focus of the series, therefore, is the (inter-)relation between extremism, radicalism, populism, fundamentalism, and democracy. Since its establishment in 1999, the series has encompassed both influential contributions to the discipline and informative accounts for public debate. Works will seek to problematise the role of extremism, broadly defined, within an ever-globalising world, and/or the way social and political actors can respond to these challenges without undermining democratic credentials.
The books encompass two strands:
Routledge Studies in Extremism and Democracy includes books with an introductory and broad focus which are aimed at students and teachers. These books will be available in hardback and paperback.
The Battle Over Working Class Voters
How Social Democracy has Responded to the Populist Radical Right in the Nordic Countries
Sanna Salo and Jens Rydgren
The Success and Failure of Right-wing Populist Parties in the Benelux Countries
Lonie de Jonge
Discourse, Hegemony, and Populism in the Visegrd Four
Seongcheol Kim
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Extremism-and-Democracy/book-series/ED
Discourse, Hegemony, and Populism in the Visegrd Four
Seongcheol Kim
First published 2022
by Routledge
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2022 Seongcheol Kim
The right of Seongcheol Kim to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kim, Seongcheol, author.
Title: Discourse, hegemony, and populism in the Visegrad Four / Seongcheol Kim.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Routledge studies in extremism and democracy | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021007469 (print) | LCCN 2021007470 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032015354 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032029573 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003186007 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Populism--Europe, Eastern. | Political parties--Europe, Eastern. | Discourse analysis--Political aspects--Europe, Eastern. | Visegrad Group. | Europe, Eastern--Politics and government--1989-Classification: LCC JN96.A91 K55 2022 (print) |
LCC JN96.A91 (ebook) | DDC 320.56/620947--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021007469
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021007470
ISBN: 978-1-032-01535-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-02957-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-18600-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: discourse, hegemony, populism, and the Visegrd Four
Populism and the Visegrd Four: an oft-trodden, yet under-excavated terrain
Discourse hegemony populism: from concept to analysis
Research questions and objectives
Structure of the book
References
Discourse hegemony populism: a conceptual horizon
Populism as expression and deviation: objectivist approaches to populism
Populism as thin construction: ideational approaches to populism