University of Helsinki
This work package studies the incursion of populist sentiment into the Venezuelan and US political systems by analyzing two opposing Venezuelan populist movements, Chavistas and those opposing the Chavistas, as well as Donald Trump’s success among Florida’s Latino population. By using various signifiers of “the people” and its “enemies” the politicians appeal very effectively to the Venezuelan and the US Latino populations. The data includes interviews with Spanish language news media and articles from the news media itself. The cases explore the limits of populism in democracies regarding empowerment, rejection and the generation of polarization through the development of antagonistic forces within mainstream politics (Venezuela) and fringe populism (US).
Main researcher: Virpi Salojärvi. Contributions: Halil Gürhanli, Tuija Saresma, Tuula Vaarakallio.