Populist Discourse and the “New Right”: Chile’s Republican Party

Abstract

Objective/context: This study aims to evaluate the relevance of the category of populism when characterizing a party of the “new right,” such as the Republican Party of Chile. Methodology: A discourse analysis of a corpus of texts representative of the ideology of the Republicans was carried out, considering four analytical dimensions: ideological description schemes, collective identification terms, populist statements, and the populist discursive style as embodied in the rhetorical ethos of the enunciator. Conclusions: Even though the Republican Party has been typified as radical, right-wing, and populist, neither the ideological schemes, the vocabulary, the utterances, nor the discursive style evidence a marked populism. In sum, other ideological frameworks better characterize the discourse of this party—in particular, conservative, authoritarian, neo-liberal, and neo-patriotic motives, framed with the signifier of a certain republicanism. Originality: The research allows a divergent interpretation of the parties of the new right, usually characterized as radical populist right.