Suchergebnisse

Abstract
As expressions without clear definition but with strong normative charging, empty signifiers play an important
role in political discourse. Uniting diverse populations under a common banner and endowing political demands with self-evident
legitimacy, they constitute a potent tool for rallying support for political action. Among empty signifiers, one particularly
versatile construct are 'the people' as bearers of ultimate political legitimacy. In this paper, we investigate how 'the people'
are constructed in propagandistic conflict narratives during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, imbuing the concept with different
meanings in the pursuit of competing political ends. We show how 'the people' are constructed as democratic sovereign, enduring
nation, moral humans or dispersed media publics, each time summoning different kinds of legitimacy and using different strategies
to construct encompassing consensus and marginalize dissent. We discuss implications for the study of ideological discourse,
populism and political communication.