Just like us: Everyday celebrity politicians and the pursuit of popularity in an age of anti-politics
| Author | Matthew Flinders,Jack Corbett,Matthew Wood |
| DOI | 10.1177/1369148116632182 |
| Published date | 01 August 2016 |
| Date | 01 August 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The British Journal of Politics and
International Relations
2016, Vol. 18(3) 581 –598
© The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/1369148116632182
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Just like us: Everyday celebrity
politicians and the pursuit
of popularity in an age of
anti-politics
Matthew Wood1, Jack Corbett2
and Matthew Flinders1
Abstract
In a supposedly ‘anti-political’ age, the scholarly literature on celebrity politicians argues that
politicians gain popularity by adopting strategies from within the world of entertainment. This
article offers the findings of a research project that has detected a marked shift in the interplay
between celebrity culture and the presentational strategies adopted by politicians. At the heart of
this shift is an increased focus on the concept of ‘normality’ as politicians increasingly attempt to
shake-off the negative connotations associated with ‘professional politicians’ and instead attempt
to appear ‘just like us’. As such, this article offers an original approach by distinguishing between
‘superstar’ celebrity politicians and ‘everyday’ celebrity politicians before identifying three aspects
of each strategy (i.e. media platform, marketing technique and performative role). It offers
numerous empirical examples that serve to underpin this distinction before using the example
of Boris Johnson as a case study in the attempted shift from ‘superstar’ to ‘everyday’ celebrity.
This focus on normality offers a fresh entry-point into the analysis of contemporary political
statecraft while also posing distinctive questions about the tension between political popularity
and credibility in an anti-political age. As such, the approach also has significant implications for
normative ideas about how celebrity can be ‘democratised’ to remedy anti-politics.
Keywords
Boris Johnson, celebrity politics, everyday, superstar, normality
Political leaders have always been confronted by an unenviable paradox: how to appear
above us (i.e. the statesman-like image) so we trust them to govern, while also appearing
‘like us’ (i.e. as ‘normal’ people) so they can claim to represent us and to be authentic
1University of Sheffield, UK
2Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton
Corresponding author:
Matthew Wood, Sir Bernard Crick Centre for the Public Understanding of Politics, The Department of
Politics, University of Sheffield, Elmfield, Northumberland Road, Sheffield S10 2TU, UK.
Email: m.wood@sheffield.ac.uk
632182BPI0010.1177/1369148116632182The British Journal of Politics and International RelationsWood et al.
research-article2016
Article
582 The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 18(3)
citizens themselves (see Kane and Patapan, 2012; Medvic, 2013). This age-old paradox—
Kane and Patapan (2012) call the ‘paradox of the democratic leader’—is compounded
in this increasingly mediatised age by a corresponding rise in what has been termed
‘anti-political’ sentiment (Boswell and Corbett, 2015). As numerous scholars have
observed (for review, see Corbett, 2015), political elites and professional politicians in
particular are increasingly the subjects of declining trust and popularity. As such, they
have resorted, particularly in western liberal democracies, to populist tactics (Albertazzi
and McDonnell, 2015; Moffitt and Tormey, 2014) or ‘personalized’ and professionalised
campaigns (see Cairney, 2007). Elite politicians who have been successful at garner-
ing support in this ‘mediatised’ age—Barack Obama, Tony Blair and Kevin Rudd, for
example—have been termed celebrity politicians (Marsh et al., 2010; Street, 2004,
2012; Wheeler, 2013). This is because they utilise the contemporary ‘post-democratic’
(Crouch, 2004) obsession with entertainment to their advantage in order to garner votes
by appearing on television shows, adopting the marketing techniques of film stars and
being endorsed by other celebrities. The conceptualisation of ‘celebrity politicians’ by
John Street (2004) and subsequent development by Marsh et al. (2010) and Wheeler
(2013) can be seen as important developments in the search for potential solutions to
this ‘paradox’ and a source for reinvigorating democracy. Street (2004), in particular,
argues that celebrity is a potentially important phenomenon that politicians can use to
connect better with a disaffected public (see also Inthorn and Street, 2011; Street, 2012;
Wheeler, 2012).
This article agrees with the democratic potential of celebrity politics but argues that
this depends upon the type or form of celebrity that is advanced. To date, we argue the
academic literature on celebrity politics has yet to fully consider the differentiated nature
of ‘celebrity’ in its assessment of ‘celebrity politicians’ and how the form of celebrity
itself may be changing. Street (2004), for example, argues that ‘analysis of political rep-
resentation does not commit the analyst to celebrating all forms of celebrity politics’.
Instead, he rightly argues that ‘the process of discrimination must acknowledge the aes-
thetic character of the representative relationship, in which notions of “authenticity” or
“credibility,” style and attractiveness, are legitimate terms’ (Street, 2004: 449). And yet,
the particular type of ‘celebrity’ that would be preferable, or even that which predomi-
nates in general, remains largely unknown.
This article seeks to fill this gap by turning the existing research literature on its head
and offering the first analysis of ‘normality’ as (paradoxically) an increasingly significant
element of contemporary celebrity politics. Celebrity politicians want to promote an
image that they are ‘normal’ or ‘just like us’ as opposed to one in which they are clearly
‘different’ and insulated from common life challenges. This type of celebrity politics uses
the power of the media to present an image of almost the anti-celebrity politician in order
to resonate and draw-support from the broader anti-political social context. Put slightly
differently, we identify a shift away from the glamour of the red carpet and film star
friends towards something more akin to the medium of reality TV where an individual’s
ability to appear ordinary, imperfect, ‘everyday’ and ‘normal’ is celebrated. In an ‘anti-
political’ or ‘anti-establishment’ age where people favour a ‘different way of doing poli-
tics’ (see Flinders, 2015) there is much to be gained by rejecting carefully orchestrated
professional media performances in favour of a rawer and less predictable mode of
engagement. This, in turn, has enabled figures who use these strategies successfully—like
Beppe Grillo, Nigel Farage or Sarah Palin—to foster highly positive affinities with voters
(at least temporarily), enhancing their electoral prospects at a time when politicians as a
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