Simon Tormey

Rethinking Populism: Politics, Mediatisation and Political Style

As a key feature of the contemporary political landscape, populism stands as one of the most contentious concepts in political science. This article presents a critique of dominant conceptions of populism – as ideology, logic, discourse and strategy/organisation – and introduces the category of ‘political style’ as a new compelling way of thinking about the phenomenon. We argue that this new category captures an important dimension of contemporary populism that is missed by rival approaches. In doing so, we put forward an inductive model of populism as a political style and contextualise it within the increasingly stylised and mediatised milieu of contemporary politics by focusing on its performative features. We conclude by considering how this concept allows us to understand how populism appears across the political spectrum, how it translates into the political mainstream and its implications for democratic politics.

Old and New Media Logics in an Electoral Campaign The Case of Podemos and the Two-Way Street Mediatization of Politics

In Spain, the 2014 European Elections saw the unexpected rise of a new party Podemos, which obtained five European Parliament seats only three months after its formation. In the Spanish National Elections in December 2015, this party obtained 20.66 percent of the votes, which made it the third biggest party. Our objective was to analyze the old and new elements of Podemos’ communication and campaign strategies. The methodology followed here used this new party as a strategic case study by a qualitative approach. The analysis focused on three key fronts: (1) the role of communication, (2) mediatization of politics, and (3) use of digital media. The results suggested that Podemos’ 2014 electoral campaign combined presence on broadcast television and use of intense digital media to boost citizens’ engagement and self-mediation. Accordingly, it was established as a new transmedia party. This case also demonstrates that mediatization can also occur in two-way street dynamics, that is, from politics to the media, where the former generates an influence on the latter. This finding opens the door to help overcome the media-centric vision. Finally, we discussed future questions about the influence on other political actors’ communication strategies in different parts of the world from an international perspective.

Resisting ‘Global Justice’: disrupting the colonial ‘emancipatory’ logic of the West

Abstract This paper takes issue with global justice theory, seeing it as a ‘global–local’ in which the perspectives and demands of post-Kantian Western liberalism silence ways of being in the world that move beyond a narrowly circumscribed definition of ‘reasonableness’. Taking its cue from critics of dominant liberal conceptions of the self, such as Spivak, Deleuze and Freire, the paper examines the impact of epistemological diversity and the radical ‘otherness’ of indigenous, peasant and marginal epistemologies on how Western intellectuals might think about global justice. We look at a number of examples of indigenous and marginal resistance to injustice in the global system, including the West Papuan and Zapatista movements, and conclude that the goals of such movements cannot be encapsulated in distributive or juridical terms. An alternative theorisation of global justice might, contra global justice theory, insist on a dialogical, contingent basis for discussing justice, whether local or global.

Reinventing the political party in Spain: the case of 15M and the Spanish mobilisations

ABSTRACT The current political context in Spain is intriguing for those who study participation and political parties. The emergence of citizen activism, expressed mainly through the 15M Movement, and the political crisis of the two major political parties has led to a new and complex situation where new political parties flourish out of citizen initiatives. This paper analyses the nature and characteristics of these new political parties, and considers the impact that the proliferation of these parties is having on current democracies. The work is based on content analysis and field interviews involving almost a hundred activists and party members from three different Spanish cities.

Utopias Without Transcendence? Post-Left Anarchy, Immediacy and Utopian Energy

The slogan of the World Social Forum is, famously, ‘Another World is Possible!’ which reminds us what is at stake in delineating the relationship between globalization, alter-mondialisme and utopia. Other worlds, better worlds are needed; they are also possible. What is utopia today may become real, lived tomorrow. But why such a slogan now?

‘Horizontals’, ‘Verticals’ and the Conflicting Logics of Transformative Politics

Anyone who follows the politics of the Movement for Global Justice (MGJ) will be under no illusions as to the difficulty of the task that confronts it in terms of developing a politics that is effective as well as noisy. Within the movement (or, better, movement of movements) there are many different kinds of grouping as well as many different visions of global justice.1 In terms of the kinds of movement, there are obviously huge numbers of political parties. There are Marxist parties, green parties and more reformist or social democratic parties engaged with the process as well. There are activist groupings and networks such as People’s Global Action, Ya Basta! and the Wombles. There are NGOs such as Greenpeace and Oxfam. There are religious groupings. There are single issue activist groupings such as those campaigning for the abolition of debt or the installation of clean water supplies. There are representatives from governments and trade unions. There are all manner of hybrid or ‘in-between’ groups such as ATTAC, which is itself an umbrella for a variety of radicalisms and activisms.

Agnes Heller : socialism, autonomy and the postmodern

1. Introduction 2. The subject as starting point - towards a radical anthropology 3. Individual and community - the phenomenology of everyday life 4. The ethical tum - from public sphere to inner duty 5. The politics of the postmodern - possibilities and perspectives 6. Conclusion

A Ticklish Subject? Žižek and the Future of Left Radicalism

The work of Slavoj Žižek has become an essential reference point for debates concerning the future of left radical thought and practice. His attacks on identity politics, multiculturalism and ‘radical democracy’ have established him as a leading figure amongst those looking to renew the link between socialist discourse and a transformative politics. However, we contend that despite the undeniable radicality of Žižek’s theoretical approach, his politics offers little in the way of inspiration for the progressive left. On the contrary, his commitment to Lacanian categories reasserts the primordial character of alienation, hierarchy and domination, and his proposed schema for confronting the status quo, the model of the Act, serves to reaffirm rather than contest the given. We suggest that a genuinely transformative politics should (contra Žižek) stress the necessity for the prefiguration of alternatives, of linking and radicalizing ‘petty’ resistances, of encouraging critical and utopian forms of thought and activity.

Beyond the state: Anthropology and ‘actually-existing-anarchism’:

In this article we seek to explore the different ways in which anarchists use anthropological materials for the purpose of advancing the anarchist cause. We note the extensive deployment of such materials within anarchist texts and identify four generative functions that they play within them. They include, respectively, the generation of critique, the generation of techniques for sustaining stateless relations, the generation of reflexivity and the generation of solidarity. The delineation of these functions demonstrates that anarchism is misunderstood as principally or exclusively a transformative ideology like socialism or Marxism. Rather, anarchists set great store by pointing to the existence of anarchist practices, anarchist groupings and particularly anarchist societies and communities that might embrace a different, cooperative social logic. Anthropology is particularly useful in this respect as anthropologists have provided a reservoir of evidence confirming not just the possibility of anarchism, but its existence albeit in the often precarious and marginal folds of the global system.

The 2003 European Social Forum: Where Next for the Anti-Capitalist Movement?

The Paris European Social Forum (ESF), which took place in November 2003, was the second such continental gathering since Florence in 2002. Yet much of the political energy of Florence was lacking. Why was this? The author argues that the social forum is caught between a desire for greater ‘inclusivity’ and the need to develop political strategies that can affirm the guiding rationale of the social forum process, i.e. that ‘another world is possible’. The London ESF, due to take place in October 2004, needs to reassert the primacy of the political over the social function of the ESF, and to help promote forms of activism that offer a genuine challenge to the corporate takeover of the planet.