Populism and Minorities

Populism is often viewed as majoritarian, giving voice to the allegedly unequivocal homogeneous people in an otherwise diverse society (Müller 2017). Yet, many populist actors appear to be making deliberate rhetorical, visual, candidate selection, policy, or campaign strategic choices to incorporate various minorities among ‘the people’ they speak for, or at least present them as important ideological allies whose interests the populist actor protects. For instance, some populist radical right parties, which are often described as Männerparteien (Snipes & Mudde 2020), have begun to entice the female vote (Celis & Childs 2018, Norocel & Pettersson 2022, Leidig 2023), emigrant and ethnic minority support (Goerres et al. 2018, Leidig 2019, Hansen & Olsen 2020; Jakobson et al. 2023; Soare & Tufis 2023) and the LGBT+ vote (Spierings 2021, Foster & Kirke 2022; Dickey et al. 2022). Is such selective inclusion of minority groups natural to populism (Laclau, 2005) or simply a calculated strategic move in the era of postmodern political campaigning, where ‘narrowcasting’ to specific electoral segments is increasingly important (Norris 1999)? While addressing minorities seems to be a growing trend among populist and/or radical parties, movements and candidates, its effects and relation to how we understand populism and radicalism still need to be conceptualised. This JS workshop contributes to exploring the scope conditions and consequences of this phenomenon on a broader empirical range across the Global North and South, and to connecting researchers from various subfields of political science (including comparative politics, political communication, gender studies, ethnic and migration studies).

1: What are the motivations and strategies of populist actors when appealing to minority supporters?
2: How do populist actors reconcile their appeal to new voter groups with their traditional supporters?
3: Why are certain populist actors more successful than others in attracting minority support?
4: Under what conditions do populist actors entice minority groups?
5: What threats and opportunities for democracy and minority rights can such appeals create?

Title	Details
Populism, Crisis Representation and the Agency of Minorities: The Political Perspective of Social Identification	View Paper Details
Examining populist attitudes among ethnic-minority voters and its effect on their voting behaviour	View Paper Details
Muslims and the Populist Far-Right: Shifting Sensibilities	View Paper Details
National populists of the world, unite? Supranational and transnational dimensions of far-right alliances in post-Brexit Britain	View Paper Details
Minorities within the nation? Populism and minorities in Latvia	View Paper Details
Ideological profiles of potential PRR voters: the role of populism, nativism, and the position of sexual and gender identity minorities.	View Paper Details
Ethno-regionalist parties’ construction of the collective identity in light of international immigration: ‘othering’ migrants consolidates the minority identity	View Paper Details
Healthy or Toxic Relationship? VOX, Latinos’ Support and the Creation of the Iberosphere	View Paper Details
Centrist Populists and Roma Minority: An Unexpected Alliance in Slovakia?	View Paper Details
Conceptualising Sidestreaming: How Populist Radical Right-Wing Parties Reach Out to Minority Voters	View Paper Details
Re-fashioned Socio-Cultural Frames: The Populist Radical Right and Russian Influence in Post-Soviet EU Spaces	View Paper Details
Likud's exclusionary populism and Israeli palestinian citizens	View Paper Details
Explaining Populist Radical Right-Wing Parties’ Opposition to Immigrant Political Transnationalism: A Comparative Analysis on the AfD and the PVV	View Paper Details