Resentful Responses to Crises: the Political Psychology of Polarization and Blame

Abstract

European integration finds itself at a crossroads and in search of direction following the increasing success of populism across the political spectrum, and a set of multiple crises (European financial crisis, bailouts, immigration, institutional trust and Brexit) that developed sequentially or concurrently. In times of crises, both citizens and elites trust their gut feelings more strongly than usual while making political judgements (e.g. Marcus et al 2000; Huddy et al 2007). Crises are especially linked to strong (and most likely, negative) emotions: anger and fear, resentment and shame, disappointment and hate (e.g. Capelos & Exadaktylos 2017). The purpose of this panel is to explore the world of emotions as a political response to the multiple European crises, especially linked to the rise of populist political forces and narratives across almost all Member States. Populist anger signals the crisis of democratic representation in many European countries and the European Union itself (e.g. Clarke et al 2017). This anger, together with fear, sits at the heart of populist communication strategies and frequently augments into resentment and hate against specific social groups (including immigrants) (e.g. Demertzis 2006; Salmela & von Scheve 2018). In turn, it manifests itself as an increase in support of right-wing and Eurosceptic parties and political actors. Beyond the political crisis, the era of a prolonged economic austerity (and the impact such measures have had) also evoke disappointment and anger which populists on the left channel against economic elites, as well as domestic and European political elites (e.g. Rico et al 2017).

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