Emotions, protests, and populismdiscursive struggle and democratic implications of recent anti-austerity movements

Abstract

Over the last decades, social scientists and democratic theorists have paid increased attention to the role of emotions in politics. However, while sociologists have emphasised primarily the role of emotions in the mobilization process, and normative political theorists have discussed mainly on the dichotomy between suitable versus harmful emotions for democratic purposes, there is still a lacuna in the understanding of the political role of emotions. It is this gap that this thesis attempts to fill. Focusing on the broad role of emotions apparent in recent anti-austerity movements in Europe, this thesis advances a theoretical inquiry, which can contribute to the connection between protest analysis, democratic theory, and populism. While in the broad scientific literature recent protest mobilizations have generally been associated with contentious processes, the rise of left-wing populism, practices of deliberative democracy, experiments in horizontal decision-making, and so forth, this research highlights the role of affects in recent anti-austerity movements, and examines how a discursive focus on emotions can enrich the scholarship on democratic theory on offer. The main argument proposed here is that, besides their central function in motivating people to engage in political action, emotions also play a significant role in the framing of democratic order. Specifically, it is contended that they have a ‘geometrical’ role in shaping the political subject – namely ‘the people’. As well, contributing to the latency of political concepts, they have an ‘evocative’ role in today’s struggle for democratic legitimacy and popular sovereignty. Finally, this investigation assesses the success of some current theories of democracy giving an account of the role of emotions in politics, and argues that an agonistic approach offers fruitful insights in this debate.