NATIONALIST POPULISM AND POST-COMMUNISM

normative evaluations of the out-group enable speakers representing the so called in-group to assign guilt or responsibility to the members of that group, or – more often – to the out-group as a whole. 84 The complex networks comprised of the relations of power, influence and information processes mean that one cannot simply identify a political discourse with autonomous expressions in the text and talk of politicians or political organisations, including political parties. The political voice is not only a representative voice, but also a composite voice, incorporating opinions of the representatives of a whole range of organisations or institutions. 85 Nevertheless, for the purpose of this analysis I will use political discourse mostly in its narrow and somehow restricted sense, as the body of text and talk of the political elite that includes members of parliament, government and political parties. However, in some particular cases, I will take into account statements from other members of the power elite in order to make the whole picture more complex. 3.3.1. Comparative political discourse The discourse analytical approach used in this study goes beyond the traditional methods of a content analysis or critical discourse analysis. Particular attention will be paid to the topical or thematic structure, semantic moves and the style or rhetoric used in the published texts, but also to quantitative criteria. The goal is to systematically analyse the political discourses in the two examined countries during different time periods, in order to show the sustainability of nationalist populist appeals in the language of the political elite, both in their party programmes and media statements. I will argue that ethnically defined “others” are an important point of reference for a significant part of the political elite both in Poland and in Slovakia, also from a longer time perspective.

84 R. Wodak, “The genesis of racist discourse in Austria since 1989”, C. R. Caldas-Coulthard, M. Coulthard (eds.) Texts and Practices. Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis. (London and New York: Routledge, 1996), p. 116. 85 See T. van Dijk, “Elite Discourse and the Reproduction of Racism”, http://www.discourses. org/OldArticles/Elite%20discourse%20and%20the%20reproduction%20of%20racism.pdf.

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