CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Gozalishvili, Nino |
|---|---|
| Title | Europe is Awakening: Diffusion and Adaptation of National-Populism Case Study: Georgia- Georgian March |
| Summary | This thesis focuses on reconceiving populist units not as evolving detached from one another, but rather influencing and providing discursive frames for each other. Thus, it proposes that, in the context of globalization, the processes of diffusion and adaptation should be taken into consideration in regard to the emergence of populist units across different cultural, historical and political contexts. In doing so, the thesis follows the national-populism framework and deploys a transnational approach in order to demonstrate how and in which circumstances the ‘success’ of national-populist politics elsewhere can influence the emergence of embryonic populist units in other, socio-culturally different national contexts and how the adaptation of exclusionary discourses is taking place. The research questions are addressed via examining the recently emerged social movement in Georgia- Georgian March. In order to track the process of diffusion and explain it, the thesis draws upon the methodological framework from Social Movement Studies and combines it with the Historical-Discourse Analysis approach. Analytically, three main discursive fields of immigration, “foreign influence” and family and Christian values are outlined. The main tool for empirically approaching the theoretical assumption is an analysis of the movement’s discourses and incorporation of the West in it. The following key findings highlight hierarchical and proximity models of diffusion and sum up as follows: Firstly, the movement constructs a “double face” of Europe through which a ‘progressive’ image of the West is positioned for legitimizing their national-populist discourses albeit with subtly endorsing traditional right-wing anti-Western discourses; Secondly, not only do the discourse fields resemble other national-populist cases, but also discursive strategies, practices, and even exact phrases are copied from them; Lastly, considering intentional avoidance of associating with Russia, the strategic adaptation is central to the diffusion process in this case and indicates the front stage populist logic of Georgian March. |
| Supervisor | András Kovács |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/gozalishvili_nino.pdf |
Visit the CEU Library.
© 2007-2021, Central European University