title: The populist performance of urban crisis - a study of populist radical right leadership of local government in Austria and Italy
Creators: name: Paxton, Fred
Publisher: name: :none
Year: 2017

description: The influence of populist radical right (hereafter PRR) parties when in local government power is an under-researched area, with only a few examples having focused on the sub-national level. This master thesis uses the conception of populism as a performative style to analyse the exercise of power by PRR parties in two case studies, for the first time, in local government. The political salience of the policy area of urban security is demonstrated through an initial contextual analysis, theoretically grounded in the concept of ontological security. Analysing the security policy of the PRR-led local governments in these cities, through semi-structured expert interviews and document analysis, the theory of a populist performance of crisis (Moffitt, 2015) is then demonstrated in parallel across both. In addition, the process-tracing approach is used to infer a relationship between the performance of a sense of crisis and the discursive creation of a new form of public order. The conception of public order emphasised in the PRR governing practice is found to be one overwhelmingly negatively defined – that is, in conceiving of urban disorder – grounded in the intensification of contemporary fears of security, and demanding diverse forms of exclusion for an ‘othered’ resident group. Exploring the variations between two cases in Austria and Italy, in terms of popular consensus (a cultural approach) and government autonomy (taking a structural approach), this thesis tests the hypothesis that a relationship exists between the legitimacy held by PRR-led governments and the form of urban disorder being discursively created. Finding the form and outcomes of the performance of crisis by these ideologically motivated local governments depends on the particular urban conditions and resulting legitimacy, this study suggests an outline of an adapted theory of a populist radical right performance of urban crisis, and signposts future research directions on the subject.
description: The influence of populist radical right (hereafter PRR) parties when in local government power is an under-researched area, with only a few examples having focused on the sub-national level. This master thesis uses the conception of populism as a performative style to analyse the exercise of power by PRR parties in two case studies, for the first time, in local government. The political salience of the policy area of urban security is demonstrated through an initial contextual analysis, theoretically grounded in the concept of ontological security. Analysing the security policy of the PRR-led local governments in these cities, through semi-structured expert interviews and document analysis, the theory of a populist performance of crisis (Moffitt, 2015) is then demonstrated in parallel across both. In addition, the process-tracing approach is used to infer a relationship between the performance of a sense of crisis and the discursive creation of a new form of public order. The conception of public order emphasised in the PRR governing practice is found to be one overwhelmingly negatively defined – that is, in conceiving of urban disorder – grounded in the intensification of contemporary fears of security, and demanding diverse forms of exclusion for an ‘othered’ resident group. Exploring the variations between two cases in Austria and Italy, in terms of popular consensus (a cultural approach) and government autonomy (taking a structural approach), this thesis tests the hypothesis that a relationship exists between the legitimacy held by PRR-led governments and the form of urban disorder being discursively created. Finding the form and outcomes of the performance of crisis by these ideologically motivated local governments depends on the particular urban conditions and resulting legitimacy, this study suggests an outline of an adapted theory of a populist radical right performance of urban crisis, and signposts future research directions on the subject.