AiS and DemCP Open Research Lecture - SAMIR GANDESHA: Transgressive Populism and the Assertion of Sovereignty

An exceedingly influential view of populism presented in the work of Cas Mudde and Jan-Werner Müller is that populism hinges on the Rousseauian opposition between a morally “pure” people, on the one hand, and a “corrupt” elite, on the other. While this definition may help to illuminate 20th century populism, it seems to fall short of understanding contemporary, 21st century populism. With Hilary Clinton’s characterization of Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” in the 2016 campaign, this opposition seems to have been inverted as the “people” come to embrace their own deplorability against the identity-based moralizing of the elites.

Wear your racism as a badge of honour! Steve Bannon implores the European far-right. Instead of morality, instead of the taboo, contemporary populism is grounded in a political theology of transgression. It is through the transgression of every moral, epistemic and aesthetic limit, that the “people” manifests its sovereignty. This transgressive populism is exemplified by figures like Nigel Farage, Jair Bolsonaro, Javier Milei, and especially Donald J. Trump who have deftly used social media to bypass traditional institutions and communicate directly with their followers to defy public health, institutional, legal, normative and other constraints on power. The US far-right’s embrace of transgression allows it to deepen and weaponize the disaffection of those who feel stifled, patronized and alienated by the moralizing discourse of the liberal left at the very moment when the material conditions of their lives are rapidly deteriorating. This is, to say the least, insult to injury. Transgression offers young men in particular a sense of orientation, belonging and purpose through the rejection of political correctness and the hitherto forbidden pleasures and delights of transgression which in the last century were the domain of the artistic avant-garde. The three clearest examples of such transgressiveness are: the Jan 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, which, in turn influenced the so-called “Truckers’” siege of Ottawa, as well as Jair Bolsonaro’s attempt to over-turn Lula’s victory in Brazil in 2022.

The notion of transgressive populism, drawing on Bataille and Foucault, as well as the Debordian concept of spectacle, helps us understand specifically 1. the difference between 20th and 21st century populisms; 2. the specific appeal of 21st century populism: the pleasure of transgressing politically correct norms and values which are seen as elitist and minoritarian; and 3. the way transgression, as Bataille has suggested, doesn’t simply deny the taboo but transcends and completes it. The concept of transgression helps us discern how while promising a break with the contemporary capitalist social order, transgressive populism only helps it deepens by incorporating transgression into what Debord called the “society of the spectacle.” Transgression is, at the end of the day, a form of pseudo-rebellion.

This Open Research Lecture will be open for all members and students of the Faculty of Arts. The invitation will also be extended to the Faculty of Philosophy.

This event is co-organized by the Research Centre Arts in Society (AiS, Dr. Thijs Lijster) and the Research Centre for the Study of Democratic Cultures and Politics (DemCP,  Dr Florian Lippert).

PLEASE REGISTER YOUR ATTENDANCE BY MAY 20TH HERE.