Populist communication among usual and unusual suspects: A longitudinal analysis of the communication of Finnish party leaders during parliamentary elections (2007–2019)

Abstract

A great deal of scholarly attention has been devoted to the success of populist actors around the world. However, to a lesser extent, the focus has been directed towards the way in which populist political communication is used by other parties and how populist political communication has developed over time. Hence, this article takes a longitudinal approach to examine how Finnish party leaders have used populist communication during four parliamentary elections and if populist communication is contagious. This study argues that populism is best understood as a discursive frame, combined with the necessary element of people centrism with antielitism and/or exclusion of ‘dangerous others’. Manual content analysis has been used to measure the usage of populism in Finnish party leader interviews during the parliamentary elections between 2007 and 2019. The analysis reveals that several party leaders used populist political communication and that an increase in its overall usage occurred during the 2011 parliamentary election. Most commonly, populism was used by the Finns Party's leaders and by leaders of other niche parties in the opposition. However, in the 2011 parliamentary election, certain mainstream parties also used populist political communication. The article critically examines the idea of a populist Zeitgeist and the contagious effect of populist political communication as an explanation for the significant increase in populist political communication. The article suggests that populist communication spreads to certain parties, but to speak of a full-blown populist Zeitgeist seems exaggerated in a consensus-seeking multiparty democracy.