'Us versus Them': Tracking Trends in European Ideological Party Families' Foreigner-Related Rhetoric in the Face of Economic and Cultural Crises Public

Abstract

Globalization and technological innovation are giving rise to the possibilities of mass migration and economic integration between groups all over the world. While these processes aid in multicultural appreciation and connectivity, they also create tensions between peoples with different ideological values. Much past research has been devoted to group identity formation theories, as well as how cultural identities in particular are connected to periods of crisis. Many scholars cite institutional processes, informal societal norms, and influential political leaders as the creators, shapers, and disseminators of these “us versus them” identity conceptualizations. 

However, few have properly examined political parties as influential actors who use in-group/out-group rhetoric to gain - and maintain - power, often at the expense of the entire population whom they “other.” This thesis fills these gaps by investigating “us versus them” rhetoric trends of political parties as aggregated into ideological party “families” across nine EU nations from 2001-2019, paying special attention to the foreigner-related rhetoric they use in light of the financial crisis of 2008 and the Syrian refugee crisis of 2015. I use MaxQDA software and Comparative Manifestos Project data to accomplish this goal, coding a total of 305 party manifestos from nine main party families over the 18-year period. I find that party families’ foreigner-related rhetoric is more frequent following a cultural crisis than an economic one, and that Liberal and Nationalist/Populist families particularly show opportunistic and polarizing usage of foreigner-related rhetoric. Hand-coding 41 manifestos from the UK, my results also demonstrate that the combination of opinions about EU-membership and about culturally foreign “others” is a key feature of the cultural cleavage emerging from voters and their parties today. Future research must link social media and news to these forms of foreigner-related rhetoric to better understand how political community in-group/out-group ideas from parties become cemented in the minds of their constituents - to often multigenerational, disastrous effects. 

Table of Contents

I. Introduction……………………………….………………………………......……….....…1

Key Terminology & Definitions………...…………………………………......….…........3

II. Literature Review……………………………………………......……………….………...6

Dependent Variable: Identity Rhetoric………………………………….....…….….......6

Independent Variable: Who or What Shapes Identities?...................................16

Remaining Gaps…………………………………………………………….…..............…..21

III. Theory…………..………………......…………………………………….……………....22

IV. Methods Overview……………………………………...………………………….........38

V. Phase I Methods………………………………………………….........………………….41

VI. Phase I Results………………....…..……………….…………………………...……....42

VII. Phase I Discussion…………………………....…………………………………..…….58

VIII. Phase II Methods……………………...………………………………………………..67

IX. Placing Phase II in Context…...………………………………………………….…....69

X. Phase II Results….......……………………………………………………………...……72

XI. Phase II Discussion…………....…………………………………………………...…...84

XII. Conclusion & Future Implications………………………..………………………...96

XIII. References……………………...………………...…………………………………...103

XIV. Appendices…………………………………....……………………………………….110

Appendix A……………………………………………………………….…….................110

Appendix B………...…..………………………………………………….……...............111

Appendix C……….……………………………………………………….…...........….....126

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	International Studies
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Political Science, General European Studies Political Science, International Relations
Mot-clé	Finland Greece key words in context Austria Hungary identity Comparative Manifestos Project racism populism Xenophobia United Kingdom civic nationalism Sweden Orientalism European Union in-group versus out-group Denmark content analysis rhetoric cleavage theory us versus them ethnic nationalism Syrian refugee crisis Far-Right Germany Islamophobia manifestos political parties cultural nationalism Brexit Economic crisis nationalism Eurozone crisis nativism France party families MaxQDA
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Proskurina, Vera, Emory University Jung, Danielle, Emory University
Committee Members	Tworzecki, Hubert, Emory University

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