Abstract
What makes politicians use populist rhetoric on social media? While previous studies tended to focus on the relationship between populist rhetoric and party affiliation, this study adopts an actor-based approach to populism. Using a sample of 3,024 posts from the Facebook pages of Israeli politicians, we show that, contrary to the expectations, populist rhetoric is not associated with a lower political status nor with preference toward representation from below. Rather, we find that it is more common on Facebook among politicians with higher social status, and actors who perceive their representational role as trustees. The article thus highlights the elitist angle of populism.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Populist Political Communication Across Europe |
Subtitle of host publication | Contexts and Contents |
Publisher | Peter Lang AG |
Pages | 153-174 |
Number of pages | 22 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9783631841334 |
ISBN (Print) | 9783631835654 |
State | Published - 4 Nov 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften Berlin 2020. All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Israel
- Personalization
- Political status
- Populist political communication
- Representational role perception