Book Description
"In the late 2000s, a wave of new movement parties swept Southern Europe as a reaction to the implementation of austerity measures and the crisis of political legitimacy in the aftermath of the global economic recession. These new political organizations found inspiration in, and capitalized on, preceding social movements, challenging the traditional separation between institutional and contentious politics. Inspired by the 15-M movement, Podemos emerged in Spain as a case of performative democracy. That is, as a hybrid political organization that enacted democracy in its attempt to both undertake and to 'live' a certain political experiment. Channelled through online media, this book examines Podemos' discourses of performative democracy in the run-up to, and aftermath of, the Spanish December 2015 general election, which led to it becoming part of the political establishment. In so doing, the book applies an interdisciplinary approach bringing together insights from political science, media and communication studies, and social movement studies. Drawing on the discourse-historical approach of critical discourse analysis, this book contributes to the understanding of left-wing populist discourse in Spain and beyond by presenting a systematic and flexible method to the study of Podemos' online discourses and its various multimodal features."--
