The Populist Emotional Politization of Race and Ethnicity

• In Event: 4166 - Democracy on the Defense: Rising Authoritarianism and Populism

Abstract

This paper compares different racial and ethnic constructions of the category the people. This category central to populism is vague and open to contestation. Whereas rightwing variants in the U.S. and Europe use ethnic and racial notions of the people to exclude former colonial subjects, Muslims, and in general nonwhite populations, some populists in the global south as the Movement to Socialism in Bolivia and Michael Sata in Zambia used inclusive ethnic categories. The paper will explain the role of colonialism in creating different views of the people, and the strong emotions racist constructs produce in populist followers.

Author

• Carlos de la Torre, University of Kentucky