Date of Award
2022
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Government Dept.
Advisor(s)
Joseph Reisert
Second Advisor
Valérie Dionne
Abstract
The word populism is often thrown around in news media and academic scholarship, but there is a lack of understanding of what it actually means as a political theory. In France, the two presidential candidates that made it to the second round in 2017, Emmanuel Macron and Marine le Pen, were both called populist, despite having vastly different campaign strategies and messages. This study used a computer-based method to analyze Campaign books from 24 candidates beginning in 1981 that determined that Populist language is on the rise, but not as aggressively as news media suggests.
Keywords
Populism, France, Elections, Rhetoric
Recommended Citation
Gilmore, Emma, "Is France Having a Populist Moment?" (2022). Honors Theses. Paper 1349.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/1349
Included in
Communication Technology and New Media Commons, European Languages and Societies Commons, French Linguistics Commons, Political Theory Commons, Reading and Language Commons, Social Influence and Political Communication Commons, Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons