Populisme au temps du numérique
Populism in the Digital Age

Author(s): Patrycja Pichnicka-Trivedi
Subject(s): Cultural history, Sociology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: populism; digital world; empty signifier; structure; people; social medias; affective community; digital democracy
Summary/Abstract: Recent years have been marked by a growth in populist orientation. In this article, we examine the relationship between populism and digital, considering the surprising simultaneity of populist success and the growing importance of digital media. Populism can be understood as an ideology whose structure is more important than its meaning. The main components of populism are empty signifiers that, because they have no content of their own, are continually re-signified with affective/emotional engagement. It is through their elasticity that they can freely associate with each other in structures that can be adapted to diverse environments, transgress domains and geographical limits. Those “wandering” structures are easily transported into the digital world, a world of the free exchange of ideas as well as information bubbles. We analyse digital technology as the tool of populists, as the environment of populisms and finally as an ideological component in itself or as an element of populists’ self-creation. Finally, we examine the complex nature of the relationship between digital technology and populism, in which digital technology can strengthen and weaken populism, serve it and undermine it.

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