Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:16:24.695Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Populist Discourse on Representation in Lithuania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2020

Jogilė Ulinskaitė
Jogilė Ulinskaitė*
Affiliation:
Institute of International Relations and Political Science, Vilnius University, Vokiečių str. 10, Vilnius, Lithuania. Email: jogile.ulinskaite@tspmi.vu.lt
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Populist parties participate in the process of political representation through elections. Little is known about how they conceptualize this process since their statements refer to a direct involvement of citizens in decision-making and disapprove of representatives. This article addresses this issue and presents an empirical study about how Lithuanian populist political parties define political representation. The data come from the 2016 election manifestos and from party websites between April 2016 and September 2017. The qualitative content analysis reveals that populists define representation by referencing common moral values and constant communication with citizens. This helps them create a political identity common to themselves as representatives and the represented.

Type
Articles
Information
European Review , Volume 28 , Issue 5 , October 2020 , pp. 744 - 760
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ankersmit, FR (2002) Political Representation. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Arditi, B (2003) Populism, or, politics at the edges of democracy. Contemporary Politics 9(1), 17–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arditi, B (2004) Populism as a spectre of democracy: a response to Canovan. Political Studies 52(1), 135–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arditi, B (2007) Politics on the Edges of Liberalism: Difference, Populism, Revolution, Agitation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Canovan, M (1999) Trust the people! Populism and the two faces of democracy. Political Studies 47(1), 2–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canovan, M (2002) Taking politics to the people: populism as the ideology of democracy. In Mény, Y and Surel, Y (eds), Democracies and the Populist Challenge. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 25–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canovan, M (2004) Populism for political theorists? Journal of Political Ideologies 9(3), 241–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De la Torre, C (2016) Populism and the politics of the extraordinary in Latin America. Journal of Political Ideologies 21(2), 121–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
European Commission (2018) Standard Eurobarometer 89. Available at: http://data.europa.eu/euodp/en/data/dataset/S2180_89_1_STD89_ENG (accessed 5 November 2019).Google Scholar
Gagnon, JP, Beausoleil, E, Son, KM, Arguelles, C, Chalaye, P and Johnston, CN (2018) What is populism? Who is the populist? A state of the field review (2008-2018). Democratic Theory 5(2), vi–xxvi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gherghina, S, Mişcoiu, S and Soare, S (eds) (2013) Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Gherghina, S, Mişcoiu, S and Soare, S (2017) How far nationalism go? An overview of populist parties in Central and Eastern Europe. In Heinisch, R, Holtz-Bacha, C and Mazzoleni, O (eds), Political Populism: A Handbook. Baden-Baden: Nomos, pp.193–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanley, S and Sikk, A (2016) Economy, corruption or floating voters? Explaining the breakthroughs of anti-establishment reform parties in Eastern Europe. Party Politics 22(4), 522–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinisch, R, Holtz-Bacha, C and Mazzoleni, O (eds) (2017) Political Populism: A Handbook. Baden-Baden: Nomos.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ivaldi, G, Lanzone, ME and Woods, D (2017) Varieties of populism across a left-right spectrum: the case of the Front National, the Northern League, Podemos and Five Star Movement. Swiss Political Science Review 23(4), 354–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Körösényi, A (2019) The theory and practice of plebiscitary leadership: Weber and the Orbán regime. East European Politics and Societies 33(2), 280–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriesi, H (2014) The populist challenge. West European Politics 37, 361–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriesi, H and Pappas, TS (eds) (2015) European Populism in the Shadow of the Great Recession. Colchester: ECPR Press.Google Scholar
Mansbridge, J (2003) Rethinking representation. American Political Science Review 97(4), 515–528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, L (2017) Populism in the post-soviet states. In Kaltwasser, CR, Taggart, PA, Espejo, PO, Ostiguy, P (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Populism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 214–231.Google Scholar
Mudde, C (2004) The populist zeitgeist. Government and Opposition 39(4), 541–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C and Kaltwasser, CR (eds) (2012) Populism in Europe and the Americas: Threat or Corrective for Democracy? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C and Kaltwasser, CR (2013) Exclusionary vs. inclusionary populism: Comparing contemporary Europe and Latin America. Government and Opposition 48(2), 147–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mudde, C and Kaltwasser, CR (2018) Studying populism in comparative perspective: reflections on the contemporary and future research agenda. Comparative Political Studies 51(13), 1667–1693.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Näsström, S (2017) Representative democracy is classless. In Vieira, MB (ed.), Reclaiming Representation: Contemporary Advances in the Theory of Political Representation. New York, Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 165–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Negrea-Busuioc, E (2016) ‘Of the people or for the people’? An analysis of populist discourse in the 2014 European Parliament elections in Romania. Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations 18(2), 39–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pabiržis, D (2013) Populistinės ideologijos partijos Baltijos šalyse 2011–2012 m. [Populist Ideology Parties in Baltic States During 2011–2012 Elections Period] Politikos Mokslų Almanachas 14, 115–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pappas, TS (2014) Populist democracies: post-authoritarian Greece and post-communist Hungary. Government and Opposition 49(1), 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pasquino, G (2007) Populism and democracy. In Albertazzi, D and McDonnell, D (eds), Twenty-First Century Populism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 15–29.Google Scholar
Pitkin, HF (1972) The Concept of Representation. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Pop-Eleches, G (2010) Throwing out the bums: protest voting and unorthodox parties after communism. World Politics 62(2), 221–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, Jr, GB (2004) Political representation in comparative politics. Annual Review of Political Science 7, 273–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramonaitė, A and Ratkevičiūtė, V (2013) The Lithuanian case: national populism without xenophobia. In Grabo, K and Hartleb, F (eds), Exposing the Demagogues. Right-wing and National Populist Parties in Europe. Brussels: Centre for European Studies, pp. 263–291.Google Scholar
Rooduijn, M, De Lange, S and Van der Brug, W (2014) A populist zeitgeist? Programmatic contagion by populist parties in Western Europe. Party Politics 20(4), 563–575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saldaña, J (2009) The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Shafir, M (2013) Neo-populism in the post-communist zodiac. In Gherghina, S, Mişcoiu, S and Soare, S (eds), Contemporary Populism: A Controversial Concept and its Diverse Forms. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 316–355.Google Scholar
Stanley, B (2008) The thin ideology of populism. Journal of Political Ideologies 13(1), 95–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, B (2017) Populism in Central and Eastern Europe. In Kaltwasser, CR, Taggart, PA, Espejo, PO and Ostiguy, P (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Populism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 140–158.Google Scholar
Stavrakakis, Y and Siomos, T (2016) Syriza’s populism: testing and extending an Essex school perspective. ECPR General Conference. Prague: Charles University. Available at: https://ecpr.eu/Events/PaperDetails.aspx?PaperID=31315&EventID=95 (accessed 5 November 2019).Google Scholar
Taggart, P (2000) Populism. Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Taggart, P (2002) Populism and the pathology of representative politics. In Meny, Y and Surel, Y (eds), Democracies and the Populist Challenge. New York: Palgrave, pp. 62–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taggart, P (2004) Populism and representative politics in contemporary Europe. Journal of Political Ideologies 9(3), 269–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomassen, J (1994) Empirical research into political representation: failing democracy or failing models. In Jennings MK and Mann TE (eds), Elections at Home and Abroad: Essays in Honor of Warren E. Miller. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, pp. 93–121.Google Scholar
Učeň, P (2007) Parties, populism, and anti-establishment politics in East Central Europe. SAIS Review of International Affairs 27(1), 49–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (2018) Northern Europe Overview – 2017. Available at: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/63732#_ga=2.153348920.1841150773.1535803249-2141048252.1535803249 (accessed 5 November 2019).Google Scholar
Urbinati, N (1998) Democracy and populism. Constellations 5(1), 110–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Urbinati, N (2014) Democracy Disfigured: Opinion, Truth, and the People. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Kessel, S (2015) Populist Parties in Europe: Agents of Discontent?. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vieira, MB (ed.) (2017) Reclaiming Representation: Contemporary Advances in the Theory of Political Representation. New York, Abingdon: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vilmorus, (2020) Pasitikėjimas institucijomis [Confidence in Political Institutions]. Available at: http://www.vilmorus.lt/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=2&cntnt01returnid=20 (accessed 4 March 2020).Google Scholar
Wodak, R (2017) The ‘Establishment’, the ‘Élites’, and the ‘People’. Journal of Language and Politics 16(4), 551–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yanow, D and Schwartz-Shea, P (eds) (2006) Interpretation and Method: Empirical Research Methods and the Interpretive Turn. New York: ME Sharpe.Google Scholar