Leiden University Student Repository

Cook, Nesha (2023)

Riding the Populist Wave: Analysing the Impact of Populist Victories on Political Party Discourse

Master thesis | Political Science (MSc)

How do populist political achievements impact political party discourse on the issue of immigration? The twenty-first century has seen the rise of populist parties and their countless political successes across Europe. Despite this resurging phenomenon, few studies have directly focused on the relationship between these populist party victories and the discourse of traditional party politics. This study conducted a content analysis of the manifestos, speeches, and statements from the Labour and Conservative parties in the United Kingdom. It explored whether the populist victory of Brexit changed the way mainstream parties discussed the topic of immigration. Utilising group threat and framing theory as the basis for the theoretical framework, the results show that following the Brexit referendum both the Conservative and Labour party’s saw a decrease in anti-immigrant sentiments in their political discourse which was reflected in their political frames.

Author

Cook, Nesha

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict and Development

Supervisors

Dr Maria Spirova

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en