Securatization and Nocerization as Strategies
of Populist Politics
1
Wydział Nauk
Politycznych i Studiów Międzynarodowych, Uniwersytet Warszawski
Publication date: 2026-05-18
Studia Politologiczne 2026;80
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Anxiety and harm to the people are important resources that are eagerly
developed politically by populists. Playing on these affects is in fact the essence of populist
politics. Populism is driven by various fears and resentments, true and/or imaginary
harm. The basic thesis of the article is the claim that there are two basic categories of voters supporting contemporary populists, in a nutshell – they are scared and victims.
This is combined with the fact that populism is mainly a politics of emotions, especially
negative, affective politics and emotional governance. In the first part of the article,
the general importance of emotions in politics was concisely discussed. In the second –
a strategy of securitization, i.e. the use of various social fears by populists, with an
emphasis on antimodernization anxieties and processing them into threats. In the
third – the strategy of nocerization and some types of harm on which populists play.
In the last point, the strategy of political retaliation driven by social anger was briefly
outlined.
PEER REVIEW INFORMATION
Article has been screened for originality
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