The rise of populism in Europe : a political economic approach : case study Brexit

Abstract

The political and economic causes of populism are quite a complex and an intricate process. The recent success in populism in the Europe and in the USA was deeply unprecedented, with Brexit being an unparalleled event. What it revealed was a deeply unsatisfied electorate who had had enough of the mainstream system. This thesis analyses the real political economic causes versus the perceptive causes in order to truly decipher why the electorate choose to such an exceptional decision. In doing so, a discursive institutional approach which umbrellas both political and economic causes will be utilised. The economic realities of neoliberalism and globalisation will be implemented in order to understand their effects on the populous. More importantly dissatisfaction will be traced through economic inequalities coupled with political identity calls of nationalism and sovereignty underlined with xenophobia. The fear of immigration will be approached from both a real approach and a perceptive approach since for the majority that voted to leave, it was the pinnacle reason. The role of political discourse and rhetoric will be taken into consideration and its role in persuading the masses. Undoubtedly the basis of such discontent was the deep rooted gap between the rich and the poor in the UK. Stagnant incomes had left people behind but populism had managed to bridge a gap between the elites and upper middle class with the working class, together they had one commonalty, nationalism. The core aspect of populism, ‘the people’ versus ‘the elite’ was changed to the ‘the people’ versus ‘the immigrants’. Together with the European Union, the outsiders became the perfect scapegoats.