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Sri Lanka Between Triumph and Defeat: Studying Populism and Authoritarianism Within Presidential Rhetoric

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Discursive Approaches to Populism Across Disciplines

Abstract

This chapter provides an empirical account of local adaptations of populist style. Based on the analysis of populist authoritarianism in Sri Lanka it highlights how universal features of populism, particularly appeals to the people and performances of crisis, derive significant power from the local resources within which they are embedded. Populist styles are given meaning, legitimacy, and force by mobilizing repertoires of practices and meaning shared widely among their target audiences. We explore populism by analysing presidential rhetoric within a critical discourse analytical framework, focusing on the period of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency from 2005 to 2015. This decade saw the climax of authoritarian populism, despite or perhaps exactly because of the end of the war, which challenged the reliance of populism on the performance of crisis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Limerick, Ireland

    Anne Gaul

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  1. Anne Gaul
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Modern Languages and Linguistics, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Michael Kranert

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Gaul, A. (2020). Sri Lanka Between Triumph and Defeat: Studying Populism and Authoritarianism Within Presidential Rhetoric. In: Kranert, M. (eds) Discursive Approaches to Populism Across Disciplines. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55038-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55038-7_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-55037-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-55038-7

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