'Talking with' and 'talking about' the far right: putting the mainstream back into mainstreaming

政治辩论、媒体和学术界普遍承认，极右翼近年来在欧洲取得了越来越大的成功。事实上，联盟党进入意大利联合政府、英国独立党在英国脱欧运动中扮演的角色，以及马琳·勒庞（Marine Le Pen）进入2017年法国总统选举第二轮，都表明联盟党越来越大的影响力。然而，对极右翼政党选举收益的关注导致了对其对欧洲政治影响的程度和性质的误解，包括夸大和低估。调查这一趋势的话语研究主要集中在极右翼政党如何调整和“软化”他们的言论，以吸引更广泛的受众，显得不那么极端，从而减少他们的耻辱。政党话语修正的内部策略固然重要，但主流化的过程更为复杂，需要进一步探索。因此，我的博士学位试图将重点从极右翼政党本身转移，并探索允许他们，或者更具体地说，他们的思想蓬勃发展的体系。它特别关注政治、媒体和学术界的主流精英在创造这种接受环境中的作用。本文采用了一种混合方法，将批评话语研究与话语理论和语料库语言学相结合，探索(1)“与”和(2)“谈论”极右翼的外部过程如何导致其正常化，而不仅仅是从选举的角度来看，而是从它所主张的思想的角度来看。“与之交谈”指的是主流精英对极右翼话语的挪用，强调主流化不是一个单向的过程。“谈论”考察了主流精英描述这些政党/思想的方式，调查了使用模棱两可或定义不清的术语如何有助于促进正常化进程。鉴于英国脱欧公投涉及“主流”和极右翼政客围绕一个共同目标的融合，并且一直是媒体和学术界密切关注的主题，它是探讨这些问题的一个高度相关的案例研究。至关重要的是，虽然“谈论”和“谈论”可能会增加极右翼政党在选举中获胜的机会，但这两个过程必须被理解为一种意识形态上的成功。虽然比选举结果更难以量化和具体确定，但这种话语影响的力量绝不能被低估，需要受到挑战。因此，主流的行动对欧洲极右翼日益增长的影响力至关重要。只有将“主流”置于我们对主流化理解的核心位置，才能制定出适当的应对策略，才能遏制这股潮流。

It is widely acknowledged in political debate, the media and academia that the far right has enjoyed increased success over recent years in Europe. Indeed, the League's entrance into coalition government in Italy, the role of UKIP in the campaign for Britain to leave the European Union and Marine Le Pen's progression to the second round of the 2017 presidential elections in France, for example, indicate its growing influence. However, a focus on the electoral gains of far-right parties has led to misperceptions, including both exaggerations and underestimations, about the extent and nature of its impact on European politics. Discursive studies investigating this trend have largely focused on the ways in which far-right parties have adapted and 'softened' their rhetoric to appeal to a broader audience, appear less extreme and hence, reduce the stigma attached to them. While the internal strategy of modifying party discourse is important, the process of mainstreaming is more complex and requires further exploration. As such, my PhD seeks to shift the emphasis away from far-right parties themselves and explore the system in which they, or more specifically their ideas, are allowed to flourish. It specifically focuses on the role of mainstream elites within politics, the media and academia in creating this receptive environment. A mixed-methods approach is adopted, combining Critical Discourse Studies with Discourse Theory and Corpus Linguistics, to explore how the external processes of (1) 'talking with' and (2) 'talking about' the far right can lead to its normalisation, not simply from an electoral perspective, but more insidiously in terms of the ideas it purports. 'Talking with' refers to the appropriation of far-right discourse by mainstream elites, underlining that mainstreaming is not a unidirectional process. 'Talking about' examines the ways in which these parties/ideas are described by mainstream elites, investigating how the use of ambiguous or ill-defined terminology can serve to facilitate the normalisation process. Given that the Brexit referendum involved the convergence of 'mainstream' and far-right politicians around a common goal and has been the subject of intense media and academic scrutiny, it serves as a highly relevant case study to explore these issues. Critically, while 'talking with' and 'talking about' may increase the chance of electoral success for far-right parties, these two processes must be understood as a form of ideological success in their own right. Although more difficult than electoral results to quantify and identify concretely, the power of such discursive influence must not be underestimated and needs to be challenged. The actions of the mainstream are therefore central to the growing influence of the far right in Europe. Only by placing the 'mainstream' at the core of our understanding of mainstreaming can appropriate counterstrategies be devised if one wishes to stem the tide.