POPULIST

DISRUPTIVE
PERFORMANCE:
REPRESENTATION
AND AUTHENTICITY
Lone Sorensen
University of Leeds
L.N.Sorensen@Leeds.ac.uk
 • In South Africa, satisfaction with the way
democracy is working has declined steadily, from
60% in 2011 to 42% in 2018 who said they were

Attitudes to “fairly” or “very” satisfied (Afrobarometer, 2020,

p. 2)

democracy in • 54% of South Africans support democracy, a drop

of 18% since 2011 (Afrobarometer, 2020, p. 3)

South Africa • 50% of British citizens feel politicians do not care

about people like them (Hansard Society, 2019, p.
13)
& the UK • 75% of British citizens say the main political
parties are so divided within themselves that they
cannot serve the best interests of the country
(ibid.)
 • ‘The people’ articulated ambiguously as bounded moral,
political or cultural community in relation to a heartland
(Brubaker, 2020, p. 49; Canovan, 1999, p. 5; Meny and Surel,
2002, pp. 6–7) and as a morally decent silent majority
(Canovan, 1999) who are endowed with common sense.
• ‘The elite’ portrayed as immoral, opposed to and actively
deprivileging the people (Aalberg et al., 2016; Albertazzi and
McDonnell, 2008; Mudde, 2007; Stanley, 2008).

Core features • Self-representation as one of the people, as non-elite

(Albertazzi and McDonnell, 2008; Brubaker, 2017; Canovan,

of populism 2005; Ostiguy, 2020; Taggart, 2000) and as able to restore

sovereignty to the people through their enlightenment (Abts
and Rummens, 2007; Canovan, 2005; Wirth et al., 2016).
• Disruption used to signal outsider status and the illegitimacy
of institutional or elite-driven norms (Bucy et al., 2020;
Moffitt, 2016; Sorensen, 2020, 2018); crisis evoked (Moffitt,
2016; Taggart, 2000) to justify disruptive acts.
• ‘The others’ portrayed as a threat to the people’s sovereignty
or way of life (Brubaker, 2017, pp. 362–364; Wirth et al.,
2016)
 • ‘Most different’ comparative study – UKIP (UK)
and the EFF (South Africa)
• Established vs transitional democracy
• Different modes of political representation
• Right-wing vs left-wing parties
• Six keyhole performances 2014-2017
Method • Mediated performances
• Received performance on Twitter
• Projected performances (live performance
captured on YouTube/Hansard transcripts,
press releases, party tweets, media
appearances)
• Grounded theory analysis
Self-connected authenticity
 “the people's army has not been carefully
engineered by an imaginative press office.”
(Farage, 2014)

“establishment politicians are constantly conscious

of the way that what they say will be perceived in
the media, they are applying a filter…very
scripted…they are the ones putting on an act”
(UKIP MEP, 2017)

Self-connected authenticity
Responsive
authenticity
“our programme is the only programme that finds “Take a chill pill”
true resonance with the people of South Africa”
(EFF, 2015)

“We are the

There's a tough talking, no-nonsense ex real voice of
commando with a passion for patriotism and Britain”
the lessons of the front line tattooed on
his heart. The steelworker's daughter
side by side with the miner's daughter.
The umbrella maker of Gypsy
extraction joins forces with the
gentle Welsh Mormon…
(Farage, 2014)
 • Populist disruptive performance speaks to
many citizens’ dissatisfaction with politics
• Representatives speak in soundbites, not
from conviction: lack self-connected
authenticity
• Representatives are not like the people
Conclusion they claim to represent and don’t
understand their lived experience: lack
responsive authenticity
• Self-connected and responsive authenticity
merge in the body of the populist leader in a
mode of representation characterised by
delegation rather than representation