Emotions and backlash in US society and politics
| Date | 01 November 2020 |
| Published date | 01 November 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1369148120948726 |
| Author | Roger Petersen |
| Subject Matter | Symposium on Backlash Politics in Comparison |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1369148120948726
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2020, Vol. 22(4) 609 –618
© The Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148120948726
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Emotions and backlash in
US society and politics
Roger Petersen
Abstract
Alter and Zurn’s framework identifies ‘frequent companions’ to backlash politics including emotive
elements. This article addresses those emotive elements. In particular, it defines and unpacks the
complex emotion of indignation, an emotion that sets off a dynamic process leading to mutual
contempt between political groups. The article shows how indignation and its dynamic processes
have helped unleash backlash politics in the United States.
Keywords
backlash, contempt, contention, emotions, indignation, mobilisation
Karen Alter and Michael Zurn’s introduction to this symposium outlines a four-part frame-
work for analysing backlash politics – theorising triggers, backlash politics, frequent compan-
ions, and theorising outcomes. This article concentrates on one specific part of this schema. It
will focus on just one of the frequent companions: emotive elements. In the course of address-
ing backlash-associated emotions, the article also takes on another major issue of backlash
theory – the agents of backlash. In most approaches to backlash, those negatively affected by
societal change are the creators and mobilisers of backlash. For example, in 2017 the
Economist put out an issue with a cover emblazoned with ‘Left Behind’ in bold letters. The
text analysed the plight of ‘globalization’s losers’.1 The assumption in this common approach
is that these losers, compelled by their own negative emotions, drive backlash. Those filling
the ‘progressive’ category are not key actors in this story, nor is there any consideration of their
emotions. I will challenge this approach, arguing that an important emotional dynamic in the
backlash process is the emergence of the emotion of contempt, mutually held among opposing
sides and jointly produced through interactions among progressives and retrogrades. While
this article is largely a theory-building exercise, latter sections will draw from recent US poli-
tics to illustrate and show the importance of the argument.
A metaphor
Many academic works follow along the lines of the Economist article. Norris and
Inglehart’s (2019) Cultural Backlash sees structural changes in the form of urbanisation,
MIT Political Science Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Corresponding author:
Roger Petersen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building E40-493,
Cambridge MA 02139, USA.
Email: rpeters@mit.edu
948726BPI0010.1177/1369148120948726The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsPetersen et al.
research-article2020
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