Positive Authoritarianism

It is often assumed that right-wing authoritarian and populist parties appeal primarily to negative feelings (frustration, fear, alienation, etc) (Wodak 2015, Salmela and Von Scheve 2017, Kinnvall 2018), and positive sentiments appear in their discourse mostly only in the form of nostalgia for a stable and familiar past (cf. MAGA) (Betz and Johnson 2004, Busher et al. 2018). Our hypothesis is that this description is not correct, and it particularly fails to apply to East European leaders in power. While nostalgia for a projected history plays some role in their discourse, leaders like Victor Orbán (Fidesz - Hungary) and Jarosław Kaczyński (PiS - Poland) devote much attention to the future in their communication and work with various types of positive sentiments (optimism, pride, efficacy, etc). Our paper is based on a qualitative analyses of speeches of these two leaders. The study highlights the role of positive emotions, analyzes the visions of future and nuances the way historical past is used for legitimizing governmental actions. The article concludes with considering a form of right-wing authoritarian politics that is not built on "politics of fear" (Wodak 2015), but (also) on positive affective appeals as a form of emotional governance.