The role of cultural production in celebrity politics: Comparing the campaigns of Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura (1999) and Donald Trump (2016)

Politics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-153
Author(s):  
David S Moon
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Production ◽  
The Body ◽  
Cultural Value ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Political Campaign ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Celebrity Politics

This article draws out the significant similarities between the political insurgencies of Jesse Ventura in 1999 and Donald Trump in 2016, charting their own premillennial political collaborations as members of the Reform Party, before identifying wider lessons for studies of contemporary celebrity politicians through a comparison of their individual campaigns. Its analysis is based upon the concept of the ‘politainer’, introduced by Conley and Schultz, into which it incorporates Mikhail Bakhtin’s conception of the carnival fool. The heterodox nature of both Ventura and Trump’s political campaign styles, it argues, is in part explained by the nature of the cultural spheres within which their public personas were produced; specifically, the fact that these personas, which they carried over from the entertainment to political spheres, were produced within genres of popular culture generally positioned as having ‘low’ cultural value. This, it argues, furnished both with an anti-establishment ethos as ‘no bullshit’ straight-talkers, marking them as outsider candidates able to act as conduits for political protest by an electorate alienated from mainstream political elites. It concludes by emphasising the potential importance that political celebrities’ specific cultural production can play in shaping a subsequent political campaign in general.

scholarly journals Authoritarian Populism in Indonesia: The Role of the Political Campaign Industry in Engineering Consent and Coercion

2021 ◽  
pp. 186810342110278
Author(s):  
Inaya Rakhmani ◽  
Muninggar Sri Saraswati
Keyword(s):  
Social Inequalities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Political Campaign ◽  
Power Struggle ◽  
Young Voters ◽  
Political Discourses ◽  
Authoritarian Populism ◽  
The People

All around the globe, populism has become increasingly prominent in democratic societies in the developed and developing world. Scholars have attributed this rise at a response to the systematic reproduction of social inequalities entwined with processes of neoliberal globalisation, within which all countries are inextricably and dynamically linked. However, to theorise populism properly, we must look at its manifestations in countries other than the West. By taking the case of Indonesia, the third largest democracy and the largest economy in Southeast Asia, this article critically analyses the role of the political campaign industry in mobilising narratives in electoral discourses. We use the Gramscian notion of consent and coercion, in which the shaping of populist narratives relies on mechanisms of persuasion using mass and social media. Such mechanisms allow the transformation of political discourses in conjunction with oligarchic power struggle. Within this struggle, political campaigners narrate the persona of political elites, while cyber armies divide and polarise, to manufacture allegiance and agitation among the majority of young voters as part of a shifting social base. As such, we argue that, together, the narratives – through engineering consent and coercion – construct authoritarian populism that pits two crowds of “the people” against each other, while aligning them with different sections of the “elite.”

How encompassing is the effect of negativity bias on political conservatism?

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Malka ◽  
Christopher J. Soto
Keyword(s):  
Political Engagement ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Negativity Bias ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
Political Conservatism ◽  
Ideological Conflict

AbstractWe argue that the political effects of negativity bias are narrower than Hibbing et al. suggest. Negativity bias reliably predicts social, but not economic, conservatism, and its political effects often vary across levels of political engagement. Thus the role of negativity bias in broad ideological conflict depends on the strategic packaging of economic and social attitudes by political elites.

scholarly journals President Trump’s Declarations on Official Development Assistance: A Change of Policy?

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-42
Author(s):  
Michał Zaremba
Keyword(s):  
Development Assistance ◽  
International Aid ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
The United States ◽  
Official Development Assistance ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Donald Trump

For years official development assistance (ODA) has been one of the most important forms of financial assistance provided to developing countries by highly developed countries. Despite the controversy over the effectiveness of assistance, it has become a permanent element of the international aid system. With the election of Donald Trump and one of the key slogans of his campaign – America first – the political climate around official development assistance is changing. The aim of the article is to analyze the role of official development assistance in political declarations of the current president of the United States.

Chronotopes as a Component of Ideological Narrative in Political Advertisements

2019 ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Hasan Turgut
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Political Campaign ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Political Advertisements ◽  
Narrative Structures ◽  
Justice And Development Party ◽  
Ideological Stance

The JDP (Justice and Development Party-AK Party) enters the local elections to be held on March 31, 2019, with the slogan of “Gönül Belediyeciliği”. In this process, the political campaign process is carried out in accordance with the conservative ideological stance of the party around various slogans such as “Memleket İşi Gönül İşi,” “Gönülden Yaparsan Gönüller Kazanırsın,” and “Gönlü Güzel İnsanların Ülkesidir Burası.” M. Bakhtin describes how the narrative is structured in time and space in the novel with the concept of chronotope. In a narrative, chronotope is the place where the plot is touched and solved as a combination of time and space. This study aims to explore the role of chronotopes in the formation of ideological narrative structures. Within this framework, chronotopic elements in “Gönül Belediyeciliği” commercials will be analyzed.

The Political Incorporation of Muslims in the United States: The Mobilizing Role of Religiosity in Islam

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karam Dana ◽  
Bryan Wilcox-Archuleta ◽  
Matt Barreto
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Incorporation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Muslim Americans ◽  
Is Research ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence

AbstractDespite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, popular perceptions in the United States, especially among political elites, continue to believe that religious Muslims oppose American democratic traditions and values. While many studies find positive relationships between mosque attendance and civic participation among U.S. Muslims, an empirical and theoretical puzzle continues to exist. What is missing is research that examines the relationships between the multi-dimensional concept of religiosity and how this is associated with public opinion and attitudes towards the American political system among Muslim Americans. Using a unique national survey of Muslim Americans, we find a positive relationship between religious beliefs, behavior, and belonging and perceptions of compatibility with American democratic traditions. Quite simply, the most religious are the most likely to believe in political integration in the United States.

scholarly journals 15 YEARS OF THE REPUBLIC OF SLOVENIA IN NATO – A CRITICAL VIEW ON DEFENCE SYSTEM

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-94
Author(s):  
MARKO CEHOVIN
Keyword(s):  
Human Resource ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Critical View ◽  
Defence System ◽  
Defence Spending ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Developed World

Abstract Shortly after Independence, and even more profoundly after joining NATO, the issue of defence and security in Slovenia was set aside. It has been quickly forgotten that an army is a fundamental element of statehood, and that several times in history Slovenes have been forced to defend their existence with an armed force. “Budgetary malnutrition”, in combination with malfunctioning human resource management, has pushed the defence system into a spiral quest for the lowest point. By failing to fulfil its commitments on the level and structure of defence spending, Slovenia has lost much of its credibility in the Alliance in recent years. Slovenia gained a great deal by joining NATO. Geopolitically it has (re)positioned itself as part of the most developed world. The most significant benefit of membership is collective security, which has brought manifold effects, including economic ones; defence is much cheaper today than it would be if Slovenia were not a member of the Alliance. After fifteen years of NATO membership, Slovenia is still divided between peace idealism and realism that historically confirms that allies are required. The defence system needs to be renovated, transformed and integrated, and solutions that have been repeatedly already identified must be implemented. The role of the political elites is to recognize, lead and guide these challenges. Key words Defence system, NATO, critical analysis, reforms.

scholarly journals Television, Rituals, Struggle for Public Memory in Serbia during 1990s

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-169
Author(s):  
Ildiko Erdei
Keyword(s):  
Public Memory ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Media Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
Political Events ◽  
Political Protests

The aim of the paper is to point to the the role of television (mainly state owned and controlled) and ritual actions, in creating and distributing messages concerning important social and political events during the 1990s. The main argument is that the urban street political protest actions that were performed by the political and social opponents of the ruling regime, mainly in Belgrade streets and squares, were a logical outcome of the regime’s media policy, and closely dependent on it. The aim of that policy was to silence the opposing voices and make them invisible, but also to avoid speaking about events that might threaten the image of the ruling regime as tolerant, peaceful and patriotic, the examples of which were information on war crimes, and devastations of Vukovar, Dubrovnik and Sarajevo. Political protests and ritual actions have created a place where these issues could safely be spoken out, thus creating an emerging public counter sphere. Instead of considering media and rituals as separated ways of communication, it will be showed how in particular social and political context in Serbia during 1990s, television and rituals have reached a point of mutual constitution and articulation.

scholarly journals Bodies and persons: The politics of embodied encounters in asylum seeking

2020 ◽  
pp. 030913252093844
Author(s):  
Jouni Häkli ◽  
Kirsi Pauliina Kallio
Keyword(s):  
Power Relations ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Political ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Political Struggles ◽  
Original Thinking ◽  
Sense Of Power

In this paper, we propose that there is a politics of encounters centered on the body at play in seeking asylum and refuge, and that it is critical to study how it unfolds from the point of view of both governing and agency. Building on existing work that looks at the role of embodiment in the political struggles of refugees, and leaning on Helmuth Plessner’s original thinking about social embodiment, we develop a theoretical understanding of this political dynamic, illustrating how it can help us make sense of power relations and forms of governance and (latent) resistance involved in it.

BAUDELAIRE IN BAGHDAD: MODERNISM, THE BODY, AND HUSAYN MARDAN'S POETICS OF THE SELF

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haytham Bahoora
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Social Order ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Political ◽  
Literary Representations ◽  
Political Commitment ◽  
Poetic Tradition ◽  
Revolutionary Period

AbstractDuring a revolutionary period of cultural production and anticolonial political commitment in 1950s Baghdad, the modernist poet Husayn Mardan was put on trial for his “obscene” collection entitled Qasaʾid ʿAriya (Naked Poems). Heavily influenced by Baudelaire, Mardan's poetics provide a revolutionary paradigm focused on the gratification of the corporeal. This paper considers how Mardan's poetry, largely marginalized from the canonized modernist Arabic poetic tradition, registers resistance to an increasingly rationalized and bureaucratic social order through a transgressive poetics that displace the political onto the body. Lampooning social uprightness and middle-class sterility, Mardan's poems encourage sexual licentiousness, embrace the space of the brothel, and celebrate filth and germs. Through a consideration of Mardan's appropriation of Baudelaire, this essay theorizes the translation and transformation of Baudelaire's paradigmatic literary representations of modernity into the context of a modernizing Baghdad and therefore historicizes the appearance of modernist aesthetics in a non-European space.

scholarly journals The Role of Ardalan’s Dynasty in Iran’s Political Structure

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 76-83
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ghorban Kiani
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
The Political ◽  
Historical Period ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Political Structure ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Political Status ◽  
The Times

This paper aims at studying the role of Ardalan’s dynasty in the political system of Iran. Going through a brief overview of the political situation of Kurdistan during Ardalan supremacy, this study is primary focused on describing Ardalan’s situation in political structure of Iran. Similar with governors in other parts of Iran, Ardalan authorities were considered as the political elites of Iran and possessed a special and unique political status among the states of Iran from Safavid to Qajar periods. Also, they were always, or at least most of the times, were among the topmost states of Iran attained the high authority and power. Ardalans had always benefited from the most prominent epithets and titles including Sultan, Khan, Baig, governer, and Biglar Baigy and they ruled their kingdom in much of the historical period covered in this study. Since Ardalans were the ruler of Kurdistan region before the Safavid dynasty, both Safavid and Qajar kings maintained them as rulers over their inherited and inborn region.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document