How Populists Construct Public Selves during the COVID-19 Pandemic : A Case Study of the Czech Prime Minister

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14230%2F23%3A00129973" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14230/23:00129973 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10720537.2022.2082607" target="_blank" >https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10720537.2022.2082607</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10720537.2022.2082607" target="_blank" >10.1080/10720537.2022.2082607</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

How Populists Construct Public Selves during the COVID-19 Pandemic : A Case Study of the Czech Prime Minister

Original language description

This paper adopts a psychological perspective to analyze the self-presentation of a populist leader in times of a national crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, examining the narrative he presents to his audience. Using a constructivist approach of the Dialogical Self Theory (DST), we analyze I-positions emergent in speeches by Czech Prime Minister Babis released on his Facebook profile during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are consistent with existing literature on populist self-presentation, highlighting that the leader constructs himself as being responsive and prototypical, as expected by the Social Identity Approach, and employs a hyper-personal model of online communication. Furthermore, we suggest, based on our results, that it might be useful to extend the DST to analyze how populist politicians relate to the people. In these positions, the politician relates to the out-group as if they were an in-group member or vice versa. This positioning might reflect the underlying worldview of public figures that try to relate to the common people. Overall, our research shows that the DST serves as a useful framework for further research in the area of political populism.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

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

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50100 - Psychology and cognitive sciences

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

Journal of Constructivist Psychology

ISSN

1072-0537

e-ISSN

1521-0650

Volume of the periodical

36

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

US - UNITED STATES

Number of pages

26

Pages from-to

62-87

UT code for WoS article

000807039400001

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85131510454