Right-Wing Populism and the Politics of Insecurity: How President Trump Frames Migrants as Collective Threats
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929919865131 |
| Published date | 01 May 2020 |
| Date | 01 May 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1478929919865131
Political Studies Review
2020, Vol. 18(2) 162 –177
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1478929919865131
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Right-Wing Populism and the
Politics of Insecurity: How
President Trump Frames
Migrants as Collective Threats
Daniel Béland
Abstract
Despite the recent multiplication of publications on populism, an area that remains underexplored
is the relationship between populism and the politics of insecurity, which refers to how perceived
collective threats are framed and acted upon. The main objective of this article is to formulate an
ideational framework for the analysis of populism as it intersects with the politics of insecurity.
More specifically, the article focuses on right-wing populism, turning to the framing of migrants in
the United States during the Trump presidency to illustrate specific claims about the relationship
between populism and the politics of insecurity. As argued, the political framing of collective threats
is a central aspect of populism. The role of framing points to the ideational side of populism, which
is not a coherent ideology but a type of discourse through which perceived threats are strategically
framed to both exacerbate collective insecurity and gather popular support by promising to shield
citizens against these threats.
Keywords
insecurity, populism, framing, immigration, migrants, agenda-setting, Donald Trump, the United
States
Accepted: 8 April 2019
Introduction
Much has been written in recent years about the rise of populism in Europe and the United
States (e.g. Adams, 2017; Judis, 2016; Mounk, 2018; Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser,
2017; Müller, 2016). Although populism is hardly a new topic in political analysis, recent
events such as Brexit and the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency have intensi-
fied the academic debate about the nature and impact of populism. This is especially true
McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
Corresponding author:
Daniel Béland, McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, McGill University, 840 Docteur-Penfield, Montreal,
QC H3A 1A4, Canada.
Email: daniel.beland@mcgill.ca
865131PSW0010.1177/1478929919865131Political Studies ReviewBéland
research-article2019
Article
Béland 163
in relationship to right-wing populism, a movement seeking to idealize the people and
vilify outsiders and that is so central to both Brexit and the Trump presidency.1
Studying right-wing populism is important in part because it can undermine democ-
racy (Kenny et al., 2016), pit groups against each other (Mounk, 2018) and encourage
hate crimes against minorities (Ibbitson, 2018). This type of populism relates to authori-
tarian tendencies, which like it can also emerge in a reaction against perceived political,
social and economic threats to group identity, status and cohesion (Feldman and Stenner,
1997). These perceived threats have a tendency to exacerbate collective insecurity
(Duckitt, 1989).
Yet, despite the recent multiplication of publications on populism, an area that remains
underexplored is the relationship between populism and the politics of insecurity, which
refers to how perceived collective threats are framed and acted upon. The main objective
of this article is to formulate an ideational framework for the analysis of populism as it
intersects with the politics of insecurity. More specifically, the article focuses on right-
wing populism, turning to the framing of migrants in the United States during the Trump
presidency to back specific analytical claims about the relationship between populism
and the politics of insecurity. As argued, the political framing of collective threats is a
central aspect of right-wing populism. The role of framing points to the ideational side of
populism, which is not a coherent ideology but a type of discourse through which per-
ceived threats are strategically framed to both exacerbate collective insecurity and gather
popular support by promising to shield citizens against these threats.
This analytical contribution is divided into four main sections. First, we examine the
concept of populism and its relevance for political analysis. Second, we discuss the poli-
tics of insecurity and explain why analysing it is relevant for the study of populism. Third,
we develop an ideational framework for analysis of the politics of insecurity as it inter-
sects with right-wing populism. Fourth, through a discussion of President Trump’s dis-
course about immigration during the 2018 midterm campaign, we show how this
framework can help scholars grasp the insecurity–populism nexus. This section focuses
particularly on the President’s discourse about a so-called caravan of migrants from
Central America walking towards the US–Mexico border. Finally, the ‘Discussion’ sec-
tion summarizes some of the key claims of this framework at hand before mentioning
other cases and issues that could become central to future scholarship on this crucial
political nexus. This section suggests that, although the politics of insecurity is only one
of the possible angles through which scholars can study right-wing populism, the frame-
work developed in this article has the potential to stimulate ongoing research on this vital
topic.
Populism
Populism is a widely used term ever present in today’s media and social scientific dis-
course (e.g. Adams, 2017; Canovan, 2005; Judis, 2016; Kazin, 1995; Moffitt, 2017;
Mounk, 2018; Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser, 2017; Müller, 2016; Rovira Kaltwasser
et al., 2018; Taggart, 2000). This is why it is crucial to provide a clear definition of pop-
ulism, which allows us to identify the empirical boundaries of this phenomenon. The defi-
nition of populism used in this article comes from the work of Müller (2016), who wrote
an entire book to answer the tricky question of What is Populism? As he suggests at the
beginning of his seminal book,
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