Populist Trends in Republican Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches

Abstract

Bibliographic note BENSON, Sophie Elisabeth. Populist Trends in Republican Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches. Mater thesis. Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Sociological Studies and Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism. Supervisor prof. Mgr. Anna Shavit, Ph.D. Abstract Populist rhetoric was quantified in all US Republican presidential nomination speeches between 1968 and 2020 utilizing Paul Taggat's model of Populism as an index to discern the viability of populist rhetoric as an effective campaign strategy in light of the shrinking core demographics of the Republican Party. The data found underscored the 2013 Growth and Opportunity Project conducted by the Republican National Convention (RNC) that the core demographics of the RNC were shrinking in electoral relevance and that the RNC was not persuasive with demographics that existed outside of their core constituency. This research showed that while populism is an everpresent phenomenon in RNC campaign rhetoric it is not sufficient in compensating for the depleting electoral strength that once guaranteed definitive electoral victories. Additionally, neither the degree of populism recorded in the speech nor in the audience response thereto correlates to the electoral outcomes. While populism is a powerful...