engleski

Populism in Croatia: The case of ratification of the Istanbul convention

The term populism is closely related to the notion of democracy. Democracy literally means the reign of people, while word populism originates in the Latin word populus or people. Despite the etymological similarity, these two tearms differ greatly in modern use. In public and political discourse the concept of democracy is perceived mostly positively, while populism most often evokes negative connotations. It has been known since ancient times that democratic participation of citizens in politics opens a lot of space for demagoguery, but populism as a modern political phenomenon has been noted for the first time in the 19th century in some non-European societies. However, for the analysis of contemporary Croatian populism, the most important notion is new European populism that appeared in the mid-1980s following numerous social changes. Populism is now a part of democracy, and many sociologists and politicians believe populism is the indicator of the crisis of democracy. Croatia is no exeption. Although some elements of populist politics have been present in Croatia since the beginnings of democracy (beginning of the 90s), not before the last 15 years can we speak of the new dimension of populism in Croatian politics at the national level. Politicians in the political arena try to discredit their opponents by labeling them as populists. They are accused of giving false and unrealistic promises and of cheap demagoguery, which in the nation strives to stir up feelings and passion thus leading to gaining support. The central idea of populism is based on the accentoation of mistrust towards ruling elites, social and political pluralism, minorities European Union, globalization, immigrants, etc. This paper deals with the analysis of populism as a rhetorical tactic used by prominent politicians during the first quarter of 2018 when the main topic in Croatia was the ratification of the Istanbul Convention. The aim is to go through political statements on this topic and identify and analyze rhetorical models that can be considered populist ; that are mostly fallacies argumentum ad populum. Also, the distribution of the use of populism among different political options will be given, assuming that the right political option will be inclining to use those more, beacuse in the last few decades in Europe, populism is mostly associated with the strengthening of right and radical political movements.

populism ; political discourse ; Croatia

nije evidentirano