Abstract

Exploring the substantial influence wielded by politicians in shaping social reality and molding the public perceptions of the country may be beneficial from a social scientific point of view. Our research delves into the distinctive realm of parliamentary discourse to unravel this intricate process.

We focus on the transformative role of politicians and political parties within the public political sphere. Through an innovative approach, linguistic similarities in parliamentary speeches are harnessed to unveil the strategies of political communication, the dynamics of power dynamics, and the myriad modes of interactions.

Our research puts the spotlight on Jobbik – Movement for a Better Hungary, a notable far-right party that has navigated a decade of political success in Central and Eastern Europe. Gaining a substantial share of the vote in national elections, Jobbik’s evolution from its radical right-wing origins to a moderate conservative people’s party is the subject of scrutiny. Leveraging techniques such as natural language processing, document embedding, social network analysis, and structural topic modeling, the study dissects Jobbik’s journey from radicalism to mainstream politics.

We uncover the transformation of Jobbik through a meticulous analysis of parliamentary speeches and the use of quantitative analytical tools. We not only reveal the evolution of Jobbik’s identity but also contribute to a deeper understanding of the intricate interplay between political communication and power dynamics.

Details

Title
Jobbik’s journey from radicalism to mainstream politics
Author
Rakovics, Zsófia  VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Barna, Ildikó  VIAFID ORCID Logo 
Pages
82-105
Section
Research Papers
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Centre for Social Sciences
e-ISSN
2416089X
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3173012767
Copyright
© 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.