Kostia Yanchenko

We, the … elites? Anti-elitism of governing populist parties in Poland, Greece, and Ukraine This article examines anti-elitist communication of populist actors in power, focusing on Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice (PiS), Greece’s left-wing SYRIZA, and Ukraine’s valence populist Servan...

We’re grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful engagement with the manuscript, and to everyone at Helsinki Hub on Emotions, Populism and Polarisation for their valuable feedback at an early stage of the work on this project. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

💡The article shows how anti-elitism in power can serve multiple functions: from constructing outsider identities to justifying policy agendas and delegitimizing political opponents. It also highlights how underlying ideologies and national contexts shape these communicative strategies.

Our analysis examined anti-elitism along 4 key dimensions: sector (political vs. non-political), specificity (generic vs. specific), scope (national vs. transnational). We've also introduced a novel dimension—temporal orientation (present vs. past)—to explore how time is mobilized in anti-elitism.

🎯 We were interested in the so-called "populist elite paradox" — when actors who are formally part of the elite themselves still choose to rely on anti-elitist rhetoric. How do such actors construct "the elites"?

Together with Artur Lipiński and @giorgosvenizelos.bsky.social, we take a comparative journey into the anti-elitism of populist actors in government, analyzing FB communication of Poland’s PiS, Greece’s SYRIZA, and Ukraine’s Servant of the People— understudied, yet highly informative cases.

❓Interested in populism in power? Ever wondered how privileged actors construct anti-elitism? Looking for a systematic approach to studying anti-elitism?

🚨Check out our new Open Access publication in the Journal of Contemporary European Studies: 👉 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....