Populistic Rhetoric: Structures Over Senses

This article makes a comparative study of American and Polish rightist populisms and their ways of operating using structural analysis of their discourses as a main tool of examination. It aims to prove that those are indeed structural similarities that are responsible for the success of populisms in diverse environments. While examining examples of populist rhetorics and noticing the surprising efficacy of similar discourse in different political and social conditions, I expose internal structure of populism(s). I state that populism(s) is constructed mostly by and on empty signifiers. Those signifiers can then be matched in broader structures, of which the most fundamental one is the opposition: “We”—“Them”. Such mythological structures are flexible enough so that any subject or object can be inscribed into them. They are also flexible enough to transgress the borders of one domain and to transgress state borders: to “wander” around the global world.