Radical right populism and the sociology of punishment: Towards a research agenda
| Published date | 01 October 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14624745221114802 |
| Author | Claire Hamilton |
| Date | 01 October 2023 |
Radical right populism and
the sociology of
punishment: Towards a
research agenda
Claire Hamilton
Maynooth University, Ireland
Abstract
The recent populist ‘explosion’in the US, UK and Europe has pushed radical right popu-
list movements to the centre of western politics. Given criminology’s long experience of
penal populism in the 1980s and subsequent decades, these developments raise import-
ant questions as to the role of sociology of punishment, and the wider discipline of crim-
inology, in responding to far-right populism. This ar ticle aims to takes stock of the
existing literature on this phenomenon with a view to proposing a tentative crimino-
logical research agenda that may contribute to our understanding of the recent rise
of authoritarian politics in Europe, the UK and US. While highlighting the continued sali-
ence of the emotions in contemporary ‘security populism’, the article cautions against
what has been described as a ‘pathologising’approach to research in this area.
Building on this, the paper advances an argument for a criminological research agenda
based on a post-dualistic understanding of political affects that seeks to move the analytic
focus beyond negativity.
Keywords
radical right populism, penal populism, affects, emotions, pathology, negativity
Corresponding author:
Claire Hamilton, School of Law and Criminology, New House, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare,
Ireland.
Email: claire.hamilton@mu.ie
Article
Punishment & Society
2023, Vol. 25(4) 888–908
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14624745221114802
journals.sagepub.com/home/pun
Introduction
It is no exaggeration to say that populism has now become one of the bywords of our age
(Mudde, 2017). Following hot on the heels of the overtly populist Brexit campaign in the
United Kingdom and the shock election of Donald Trump in the United States of
America, a series of significant electoral successes in Europe, ranging from the sudden
rise of the far-right Vox party in Spain to the joint rule of two populist parties in Italy,
have pushed populist movements to the centre of western politics. Some of the biggest
advances have been made in central and eastern Europe where far-right parties have
now come to power and established autocratic regimes. With the vote share of populist
parties in national elections for European countries now at its highest level since the
early 1990s (Rooduijn et al., 2019), this populist ‘explosion’(Judis, 2016) is widely
regarded as a very real and grave threat to democracy in general, and the rights of minor-
ities in particular. Latterly, while the Covid-19 crisis is often said to have created a dif-
ficult environment for populist parties, it has also created opportunities, through alliances
with anti-lockdown protestors, and appeals to those who have borne the brunt of the pan-
demic’s economic effects (Katsambekis et al., 2020).
These developments raise important questions as to the role of sociology of punish-
ment, and the wider discipline of criminology, in responding to far-right populism.
Criminologists might be expected to offer something of a unique perspective on the phe-
nomenon, having adopted the label ‘penal populism’or ‘populist punitiveness’to
describe the emergence of increasingly harsh criminal justice polices and rhetoric in
certain western jurisdictions in the 1990s. As Loader (2018: 7) puts it, ‘criminologists
have, after all, been engaged for some time with problems that are animated by anger-
fuelled populism and authoritarian rhetoric’. Moreover, as will be discussed below,
analyses highlighting the continued salience of crime, punishment and security in
contemporary populist discourse have now been joined by a growing body of empirical
research linking these issues to (radical right) populist success. This article takes stock of
the existing literature on this phenomenon with a view to proposing a tentative crimino-
logical research agenda that may contribute to our understanding of the recent rise of
authoritarian politics in Europe, the UK and US. It unfolds in three parts. The first part
examines the shared characteristics, causes and effects that criminologists have identified
between penal and political populism, including important work that has recently
emerged on the emotions and various forms of ‘hostile solidarity’. The second part
takes a brief digression into the political science and wider literature to illustrate the
dangers of the irrationalisation of affect and what has been described as a ‘pathologising’
approach to far-right populism. Building on this, the third, and concluding part advances
an argument for a criminological research agenda based on a post-dualistic understanding
of political affects that seeks to move the analytic focus beyond negativity.
‘The Dam Bursts’?: The shift from penal to political populism
Criminology has a long history of critical engagement with various forms of populism,
ranging from the ‘authoritarian populism’(Hall, 1979) of the 1970s, to the ‘populist
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