Populism and nativism in contemporary regionalist and nationalist politics: A minimalist framework for ideologically opposed parties
| Published date | 01 February 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0263395721995016 |
| Author | George Newth |
| Date | 01 February 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395721995016
Politics
2024, Vol. 44(1) 3 –24
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0263395721995016
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Populism and nativism in
contemporary regionalist and
nationalist politics: A minimalist
framework for ideologically
opposed parties
George Newth
University of Bath, UK
Abstract
Recent literature on the centre–periphery debate in European politics has produced a wide range
of composite paradigms of regionalism, nationalism, and populism and nativism. A number of these
definitions, however, tend to overemphasise the importance of populism by either framing it as a
core ideology or by conflating it with the nationalism or regionalism of a specific party. This article
makes three innovative contributions to populist studies by sustaining an ideational approach to
populism and its combination with regionalist and nationalist ideologies. First, the article addresses
the varied and at times conflicting composite paradigms of regionalism, nationalism, and populism
by proposing a minimalist ‘populist regionalist’ and ‘populist nationalist’ conceptual framework;
this places the emphasis on the type of nationalism and regionalism (left- or right-wing, civic or
ethnic) to which populism and (potentially) nativism are attached. Second, by emphasising a clear
distinction between populism and nativism, the article adds to a growing field of literature which
aims to address the problem of ‘populist hype’. Finally, the contribution of a brief comparative case
study illustrates how populism represents a key link between nationalists and regionalists ranging
from the far-left to the far-right which are otherwise separated by nativism.
Keywords
minority nationalism, nativism, populism, regionalism, state nationalism
Received: 9th May 2020; Revised version received: 6th December 2020; Accepted: 21st January 2021
Introduction
Over the past decade, the centre–periphery debate in European politics has grown in prom-
inence, with the recent literature analysing ‘the intersection of territoriality, ethno-politics,
and populism’ and how nationalism, regionalism, and populism can be mixed covering ‘a
large range of ideological orientation on the left-right-axis’ (Heinisch et al., 2020). In order
to examine various movements, there has been a proliferation of composite paradigms of
Corresponding author:
George Newth, Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies, University of Bath, Claverton
Down, Bath BA2 7AY, UK.
Email: ghn20@bath.ac.uk
995016POL0010.1177/0263395721995016PoliticsNewth
research-article2021
Article
4 Politics 44(1)
regionalism, nationalism, and populism and nativism, a number of which tend to overem-
phasise the importance of populism by either framing it as a core ideology or by conflating
it with the nationalism or regionalism of a specific party. This article instead develops a
minimalist framework which disentangles these components and which can be broadly
applied to regionalist and nationalist movements that range from the far-right to the far-left
and engage with populism. Accordingly, the following research question will be addressed
in this article:
To what extent does a framework of populist regionalism and populist nationalism enable the
examination of similarities between ideologically heterogeneous regionalist and nationalist parties?
Addressing this question benefits not only scholars of populism but also those of
regionalist/minority nationalist and majority nationalist parties. With regard to populism,
the article contributes to a growing field of literature which seeks to tackle the issue of
‘populist hype’ and warns that an inaccurate use of the term populism may lead to the
euphemisation and legitimisation of the far-right (Glynos and Mondon, 2016). A clearer
demarcation of populism from nativism will help contribute to such efforts.
As for studies on regionalist and nationalist parties, this framework emphasises the
semantic ordering of ‘populist regionalism’ and ‘populist nationalism’ (rather than region-
alist populism or nationalist populism). This ordering underlines that parties must be
defined primarily by the civic or ethnic features of their core ideologies of regionalism or
nationalism, and only secondarily by populism and/or nativism. The framework provides
a tool to disentangle these ideologies and examine how populism and nativism offer
nationalist and regionalist parties across the political spectrum specific ways of mobilis-
ing voter support.
Following this ‘Introduction’, the article is divided into three sections. The first section
examines existing composite paradigms of regionalism, nationalism, populism, and
nativism.
The second section provides a case study of the far-right Lega in Italy, and three
Catalan autonomist parties, each of a different ideological leaning, but which all backed
Catalan independence in the 2017 referendum: the centre–right Convergence and Union
coalition (CiU), the left-wing Republican Party of the Left (ERC) and the far-left, Popular
Unity Candidacy (CUP). The results of this case study form the basis of a framework to
examine populist nationalist and regionalist discourses of movements which range from
the far-right to the far-left.
The third and final section discusses this article’s finding and proposes how the frame-
work can be developed further in order to further our understanding of how populism
combines with and is potentially a result of different articulations of regionalist and
nationalist ideology.
Populist regionalism and populist nationalism
The following section unpacks the concepts of nationalism and regionalism, populism,
and nativism before examining how existing paradigms combine these components
Nationalism, regionalism, nativism, populism
Nationalism, regionalism, nativism, and populism are defined here as ‘thin-centred’ ide-
ologies ‘which alone are unable “to provide a reasonably broad, if not comprehensive,
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