Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Populism Versus Anti-populism in the Greek Press: Post-Structuralist Discourse Theory Meets Corpus Linguistics

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Discourse, Culture and Organization

Part of the book series: Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse ((PSDS))

Abstract

Within the scope of the POPULISMUS research project (2014–5), we have engaged in a methodological cross-fertilization between Essex School-inspired methods of analysis and computer-assisted text analysis (drawing on corpus linguistics). In this chapter, emphasis is placed on the Greek case and the material analyzed involves newspaper articles from the 2014–5 period. In particular, the analysis focuses on the antagonistic language games developed around representations of ‘the people’ and ‘populism’. Highlighting the need to study anti-populism together with populism, something that has not attracted much attention in the relevant bibliography, and focusing on their mutual constitution from a discourse-theoretical as well as lexicometric perspective, we articulate a comprehensive analysis of the populist and anti-populist press in Greece, with broader implications for populism research globally.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    That would be a concrete example of what Roland Barthes calls myth: a special type of discourse that becomes naturalized, represses its contingent and historical articulation and presents itself as an obvious and indisputable certainty, astruth (Barthes and Howard 1979).

  2. 2.

    POPULISMUS unfolded its various activities in the period between February 2014 and August 2015 at the School of Political Sciences of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The project was funded under the Action ‘ARISTEIA II’, which was implemented by the Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs within the framework of the Operational Program ‘Education and Lifelong Learning’ (NSRF 2007–13) and was co-funded by the European Union (European Social Fund) and national funds. More information is accessible from the POPULISMUS Observatory: www.populismus.gr

  3. 3.

    www.populismus.gr/category/clipping-en/printed-greek-press-clipping (Date of Access: April 25, 2017).

  4. 4.

    ‘Keyness’ is another lexicometric tool that measures the degree to which each word has the quality of being a keyword, that is, to be overrepresented, in a selected corpus, with respect to a reference corpus, constructed by a random set of articles (witness).

References

A

  • Abts, K., & Rummens, S. (2007). Populism Versus Democracy. Political Studies, 55(2), 405–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akkerman, T. (2003). Populism and Democracy: Challenge or Pathology? Acta Politica, 38(2), 147–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

B

  • Barthes, R., & Howard, R. (1979). Lecture in Inauguration of the Chair of Literary Semiology, Collège de France, January 7, 1977. October, 8(Spring), 3–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

C

  • Caiani, M., & della Porta, D. (2011). The Elitist Populism of the Extreme Right: A Frame Analysis of Extreme Right-Wing Discourses in Italy and Germany. Acta Politica, 46(2), 180–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cendrowicz, L. (2012). 10 Questions with European Commission President Jose´ Manuel Barroso. Time Magazine. Published Online: http://goo.gl/h1Plh. Accessed 1 Mar 2018.

  • Conaghan, C., & De la Torre, C. (2008). The Permanent Campaign of Rafael Correa Making Ecuador’s Plebiscitary Presidency. International Journal of Press and Politics, 13(3), 267–284.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corrales, J., & Penfold, M. (2011). Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chavez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

D

  • De la Torre, C. (2000). Populist Seduction in Latin America. Athens: Ohio University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Tella, T. (1965). Populism and Reform in Latin America. In C. Véliz (Ed.), Obstacles to Change in Latin America (pp. 47–73). London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doxiadis, A., & Matsaganis, M. (2012). National Populism and Xenophobia in Greece. London: Counterpoint.

    Google Scholar 

G

  • Germani, G. (1978). Authoritarianism, Fascism, and National Populism. New Brunswick: Transaction, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glasze, G. (2007). The Discursive Constitution of a World-Spanning Region and the Role of Empty Signifiers: The Case of Francophonia. Geopolitics, 12, 656–679.

    Article  Google Scholar 

H

  • Hofstadter, R. (1955). The Age of Reform. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howarth, D., Norval, A., & Stavrakakis, Y. (Eds.). (2000). Discourse Theory and Political Analysis: Identities, Hegemonies and Social Change. Manchester/New York: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

K

  • Karush, M., & Chamosa, O. (2010). Introduction. In M. Karush & O. Chamosa (Eds.), The New Cultural History of Peronism: Power and Identity in Mid-Twentieth-Century Argentina (pp. 1–20). Durham: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

L

  • Laclau, E. (2005). On Populist Reason. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (1st ed.). London/ New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (2001). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (2nd ed.). London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

M

  • Meny, Y., & Surel, Y. (2002). The Constitutive Ambiguity of Populism. In Y. Meny & Y. Surel (Eds.), Democracies and the Populist Challenge (pp. 1–21). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Müller, J. W. (2016). What Is Populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

P

  • Pantazopoulos, A. (2001). Gia to lao kai to ethnos: I stigmi tou Andrea Papandreou 1965–1989. Athens: Polis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pantazopoulos, Α. (2013). O aristeros ethnikolaikismos 2008–2013. Thessaloniki: Epikentro.

    Google Scholar 

  • di Piramo, D. (2009). “Speak for Me!”: How Populist Leaders Defy Democracy in Latin America. Global Change, Peace and Security, 21(2), 179–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plotkin, M. B. (2003). Manana es San Peron: A Cultural History of Peron’s Argentina. Willmington: Scholarly Resources Inc.

    Google Scholar 

R

  • Rooduijn, M., & Pauwels, T. (2011). Measuring Populism: Comparing Two Methods of Content Analysis. West European Politics, 34(6), 1272–1283.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rydgren, J. (2004). The Populist Challenge: Political Protest and Ethno-Nationalist Mobilization in France. New York: Berghahn books.

    Google Scholar 

S

  • Stavrakakis, Y. (1999). Lacan & the Political. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stavrakakis, Y. (2014). The Return of ‘the People’: Populism and AntiPopulism in the Shadow of the European Crisis. Constellations, 21(4), 505–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

T

  • Taggart, P. (2000). Populism. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taguieff, P. A. (1984). La rhétorique du national-populisme. Mots, 9, 113–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taguieff, P. A. (2013). O neos ethniko-laikismos. Thessaloniki: Epikentro.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This article draws on material collected within the scope of the POPULISMUS research project (www.populismus.gr). POPULISMUS was undertaken at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2014–2015), with funding from the European Union (European Social Fund) and National Funds (Greece) within the framework of the Operational Programme ‘Education and Lifelong Learning’ (Action ‘ARISTEIA II’). The collection of more recent press material relied on a grant from the Research Committee of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The research of Grigoris Markou has been financially supported by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT) and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) (Scholarship Code: 391).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Nikos Nikisianis

  2. School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Thomas Siomos

  3. School of Political Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Yannis Stavrakakis & Grigoris Markou

  4. Department of French Language and Literature, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Titika Dimitroulia

Authors
  1. Nikos Nikisianis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas Siomos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yannis Stavrakakis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Grigoris Markou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Titika Dimitroulia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Tomas Marttila

Primary Resources

Primary Resources

Websites

Articles in Greek Newspapers

  • Aggelioforos, 6/6/2015, ‘The elections as deadlock’.

  • Athens Voice, 13/5/2015, ‘Idealization and reality’.

  • Kathimerini, 18/3/2015, ‘Can we tame the beast of populism?’.

  • Kathimerini, 8/5/2015, ‘They came to become establishment’.

  • Kathimerini, 10/5/2015, ‘Our weaknesses have won’.

  • Kathimerini, 12/5/2015, ‘The unnecessary referendum’.

  • Kathimerini, 7/6/2015, ‘The great dilemma of Alexis Tsipras’.

  • Kathimerini, 2/7/2015, ‘The modern patriotism’.

  • Kathimerini, 12/7/2015, ‘Blind present and national identity’.

  • Ta Nea, 18/6/2014, ‘An imaginary patient’.

  • Ta Nea, 1/7/2015, ‘The immediate lie’.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Nikisianis, N., Siomos, T., Stavrakakis, Y., Markou, G., Dimitroulia, T. (2019). Populism Versus Anti-populism in the Greek Press: Post-Structuralist Discourse Theory Meets Corpus Linguistics. In: Marttila, T. (eds) Discourse, Culture and Organization. Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94123-3_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94123-3_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94122-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94123-3

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation