The Firm and the Nation: The Role of Fantasy in the Czech Populist Movements of ANO and SPD

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11230%2F23%3A10475446" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11230/23:10475446 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=MN3z90LQ9o" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=MN3z90LQ9o</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

—

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The Firm and the Nation: The Role of Fantasy in the Czech Populist Movements of ANO and SPD

Original language description

Populism in Central Europe remains an elusive subject to grasp. In relation to neoliberal hegemony, the question remains whether populism represents its rupture or consolidation. This paper explores populist tendencies in Czechia by analysing the discourses of two prominent politicians, Andrej Babiš and Tomio Okamura, in their campaigns ahead of the 2017 parliamentary elections. Drawing on post-structuralist discourse theory, the analysis looks for key signifiers, narratives and ways certain topics are articulated, making use of a theoretical account of populism as a political logic, rather than an ideology, as well as the concept of fantasy derived from lacanian psychoanalysis. Exploration of the relation between fantasy and populism is of vital theoretical relevance. The paper focuses on corruption as a possible dislocation of neoliberal hegemony that led to an organic crisis. In the context of extreme distrust in politicians and parties both Babiš and Okamura presented anti-corruption narratives that gained resonance, both rearticulating neoliberalism in specific ways and relying on fantasmatic narratives. While Babiš drew on neoliberal discourses surrounding citizenship and work, Okamura radicalized them into an exclusionary populism that seeks to rid society of &quot;parasites&quot;. Both blame the elites - connected with corrupt politicians and their business godfathers.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50601 - Political science

Project

—

Continuities

S - Specificky vyzkum na vysokych skolach

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Politické vedy

ISSN

1335-2741

e-ISSN

1338-5623

Volume of the periodical

26

Issue of the periodical within the volume

2

Country of publishing house

SK - SLOVAKIA

Number of pages

24

Pages from-to

114-137

UT code for WoS article

001185836900005

EID of the result in the Scopus database

—