PopText · Exploring Populism in Texts: Leveraging AI for Substantive and Methodological Advancements

This interdisciplinary project embarks on an extensive exploration of the methodologies that underlie the study of populism through textual analysis, with the primary goal of enhancing our comprehension of this intricate phenomenon. The surge of populism on the global stage underscores an urgent need for scholarly investigation. However, the nuanced and adaptable nature of populism presents challenges, complicating efforts to establish a single, universally accepted definition. This conceptual ambiguity not only fuels ongoing debates about the core essence of populism but also permeates empirical analyses, including those centered on textual investigations. Despite the growing body of theoretical and empirical work, a noticeable gap persists in our grasp of the methodological subtleties inherent in the analysis of populism through texts. These methodological intricacies encompass a spectrum of dimensions, ranging from the application of conceptual frameworks to textual analyses, to the adaptation of text-as-data techniques capable of capturing the dynamic evolution of populism over time. This groundbreaking project marks an unprecedented endeavor in conducting cross-national and longitudinal evaluations of political parties' populist discourse. It employs a robust methodology integrating manual coding and machine learning techniques. By engaging with theoretical concepts and deploying cutting-edge AI tools to generate unique datasets capturing populism in texts, this project stands poised to enrich our nuanced understanding of how populism is conveyed across diverse temporal and contextual dimensions, pushing the boundaries of current knowledge in the field.