The rhetoric of discontent

Abstract

Vivien Schmidt delivered a lecture titled "The Rhetoric of Discontent"where she addressed the question Why and how have populists had such success today in channeling public fear and anger? While most scholars often respond by focusing on the sources of discontent—economic, social, or political—and trigger moments, Schmidt is looking for a complete answer that demands an investigation of what populists say, meaning the substantive content of leaders’ ideas and discourse; how they say it, involving the discursive processes of interaction via activist social movements, party networks, and direct links with ‘the people;’ and what they do, in opposition and/or in power in their differing national contexts.