The Emotional Life of Populism: How Fear, Disgust, Resentment, and Love Undermine Democracy

by Eva Illouz, Avital Sicron

Throughout the world, democracy is under assault by various populist movements and ideologies. And throughout the world, the same enigma: why is it that political figures or governments, who have no qualms about aggravating social inequalities, enjoy the support of those whom their ideas and policies affect and hurt the most?

To make sense of this enigma, the sociologist Eva Illouz argues that we must understand the crucial role that emotions play in our political life. Only emotions have the power to deny factual evidence and obscure one's self-interest. Taking the case of Israel as her prime example, she shows that the authoritarianism and conservative nationalism that form the core of populist politics rest on four key emotions: authoritarianism is legitimated through fear, and conservative nationalism rests on disgust, resentment and a carefully cultivated love for one's country. It is the combination of these four emotions and their relentless presence in the political arena that nourishes and underpins the rise and persistence of populism both in Israel and in many other countries around the world.

This highly original perspective on the rise of populism will be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the key political developments of our time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

187 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2023

About the author

Eva Illouz (Hebrew: אווה אילוז‎‎) is a professor of sociology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Since October 2012 she has been President of Bezalel Academy of Art and Design. She is Bezalel's first woman president. Since 2015, Illouz has been a professor at Paris's School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (École des hautes études en sciences sociales).

The research developed by Illouz from her dissertation onward focuses on a number of themes at the junction of the study of emotions, culture and communication:

The ways in which capitalism has transformed emotional patterns
One dominant theme concerns the ways in which capitalism has transformed emotional patterns, in the realms of both consumption and production.

Consuming the Romantic Utopia
Illouz's first book addresses a dual process: the commodification of romance and the romanticization of commodities. Looking at a wide sample of movies and advertising images in women’s magazines of the 1930s, Illouz finds that advertising and cinematic culture presented commodities as the vector for emotional experiences and particularly the experience of romance. Commodities of many kinds – soaps, refrigerators, vacation packages, watches, diamonds, cereals, cosmetics, and many others – were presented as enabling the experience of love and romance. The second process was that of the commodification of romance, the process by which the 19th-century practice of calling on a woman, that is going to her home, was replaced by dating: going out and consuming the increasingly powerful industries of leisure. Romantic encounters moved from the home to the sphere of consumer leisure with the result that the search for romantic love was made into a vector for the consumption of leisure goods produced by expanding industries of leisure.

Cold Intimacies and Saving the Modern Soul
In Cold Intimacies and Saving the Modern Soul Illouz examines how emotions figure in the realm of economic production: in the American corporation, from the 1920s onward emotions became a conscious object of knowledge and construction and became closely connected to the language and techniques of economic efficiency. Psychologists were hired by American corporations to help increase productivity and better manage the workforce and bridged the emotional and the economic realms, intertwining emotions with the realm of economic action in the form of a radically new way of conceiving of the production process. So whether in the realm of production or that of consumption, emotions have been actively mobilized, solicited and shaped by economic forces, thus making modern people simultaneously emotional and economic actors.

The role of popular clinical psychology in shaping modern identity
Illouz argues that psychology is absolutely central to the constitution of modern identity and to modern emotional life: from the 1920s to the 1960s clinical psychologists became an extraordinarily dominant social group as they entered the army, the corporation, the school, the state, social services, the media, child rearing, sexuality, marriage, church pastoral care. In all of these realms, psychology established itself as the ultimate authority in matters of human distress by offering techniques to transform and overcome that distress. Psychologists of all persuasions have provided the main narrative of self-development for the 20th century. The psychological persuasion has transformed what was classified as a moral problem into a disease and may thus be understood as part and parcel of the broader phenomenon of the medicalization of social life. What is common to theme 1 and theme 2 is that both love and psychological health constitute utopias of happiness for the modern self, that both are mediated through consumption and that both constitute horizons to which the modern self aspires. In that sense, one overarching theme of her work can be called

Reviews

[Guillermo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eva Illouz, valiéndose de la sociología de las emociones, reconstruye como a través del miedo, el asco, el resentimiento y el amor Israel, en manos del Likud, se ha convertido en un estado populista de extrema derecha. Con un análisis extrapolable a otros países occidentales. Me ha parecido oportuno, agudo y brillante.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

insbesondere das vierte kapitel zu nationalismus hat mich abgeholt. davor bisschen schleppend, aber trotzdem sehrsehrsehr interessante analyse.

[Charo Ramos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro es (fue, depende de cuándo leas esto) el texto con el que iniciamos el año en el taller de lectura. Porque aborda problemáticas que nos están quitando el sueño y que van a guiar las lecturas de 2024, incluso de la literatura que vamos a leer.

Esta vez, Illouz se sumerge en un tema acuciante que ya había empezado a explorar en otros textos como Intimidades congeladas y Happycracia. Y que en el taller ya empezamos a ver, aunque esta vez tenemos un libro que realmente nos va a ayudar a responder algunas preguntas sobre la actualidad de la política mundial.
En La vida vida emocional del populismo va directo al hueso: la forma en la que nos acercamos a la política cambió y ahora está más que nunca -si es que no lo estuvo antes- teñida de emociones tan fuertes, tan contundentes que la reflexión y la negociación parecen haber quedado relegadas.
Durante el taller vamos a compartir y debatir sobre el libro, y también explorar el giro afectivo y vamos a recurrir a otras lecturas, podcasts y series o películas que nos van a ayudar a darle contexto a la propuesta de la autora y bajar un poco la densidad académica de la escritura (aunque es más llevadero y corto que ¿Por qué duele el amor?).

[Uxía Beiras · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve learned loads with this book. I’ve learned a lot about the emotional world of the Israeli state and its discourse. I also learned about Israeli politics and the rise of the extreme right. Yet the conclusion has nothing to do with the thesis of the book and I will also admit that that illouzs left wing Zionism is angering and frustrating to say the least. Yet I still think that it is very important to engage with this type of discourses to facilitate actual material change for the Palestinian people.
Anyhow, I think sociology of emotions is a fascinating field to understand the political and environmental debacle that we’re heading towards and this book has given me a very good insight on it.

[Javi Hernández Castro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro es esencial para entender que lo personal es político. Illouz analiza las estrategias de la extrema derecha usando el ejemplo de Israel y sugiere cómo las emociones de cada uno y del colectivo se utilizan para dividir e imponer.
El libro acaba con una sugerencia para acabar con este problema que cada día es más acuciante en nuestras vidas.

[Melat Zeine · Rating 5 out of 5]

skit bra bok. Lärde mig mer om populism och israelisk inhouse problematik. Ända minuset är att ja tyckte författaren som själv är Israel; även om hon va kritisk mot Israel as it is today tkr ja hon va lite väl gulligull när hon börja toucha ämnen om Israels uppkomst vilket va en besvikelse me tanke på hur fkn bra boken va.

[Emmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hela boken handlar om Israel, lärde mig mkt!

[Luis Le drac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pongámonos un pelín serios. Libro de extraordinaria lucidez que intenta desentrañar el auge de los populismos a través de las emociones. Pone el punto de mira en Israel, pero nos vale Italia, EEUU o Hungría (¡ups!, y España). Todos ellos buscan la confrontación y la segregación amparados paradójicamente en una unión hermética. Parece mentira que una sociedad como la israelí ejerza las mismas acciones que ellos soportaron durante la Shoah. Y es que los extremos se juntan. Es una lectura sencilla, breve, pero a su vez con mucha enjundia. Aprovecho para añadir una serie -East side-, de la cual sólo he visto dos episodios, es poco, pero en la que se vislumbran las injusticias que toda minoría sufre en Jerusalén -no sólo los musulmanes- y que van más allá de lo que unos informativos aportan. Más bien, tiene que ver con la cotidianidad de la vida. Leyendo la sinopsis nos acercamos a grupos israelíes de presión inmobiliarios. Jerusalén este es una especie de gueto que, incluso, entre los propios musulmanes llegan al odio entre ellos mismos. Sorprende que la serie sea israelí y que muestre sus propias vergüenzas. De su calidad cinematográfica, no opino. De su interés sociológico, puede ser enriquecedora. Repito: sólo llevo dos episodios. La serie está en Filmin y el libro en el Infierno de Dante.

[didisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book altered my brain in a satisfying but also terrifying way. you should read this.

[Katja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fünf Sterne, obwohl es einfach nur endlos anstrengend ist zu lesen. Aber so schlau und relevant.

[Erik Radell]

Rekommenderar starkt

[mila · Rating 5 out of 5]

eva illouz!!! te amo!! me ayudaste demasiado con la tesis!! así que te perdono que seas judía!!

[Erica Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boken handlar om hur populism i Israel påverkas genom att styrande makt engagerar starka känslor hos befolkningen, samt hur den extremhögern ökar så starkt världen över idag genom att engagera med känslor som sedan polariserar, hänger ut, svartmålar och bestraffar. Tyckte att boken gav en bra förklaring för Israel, utifrån känslorna som befolkningen har gentemot varandra och andra, och baserat på det hur det sedan blir. Som en annan recensent skrivit så är författaren, trots att det är väldigt direkt och tydliga analyser, själv vänstersionist vilket jag tänker också för att det inte finns en helt och hållet kritisk blick framförallt kring Israel som stats uppkomst och problematiken i det. Det hade jag saknat. Överlag en bra bok som jag iallafall tar med i blicken på dagens politik i Sverige, nyttig läsning! 4,5/5

[Thomas Becker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ich war am Anfang des Buches tatsächlich etwas skeptisch bezüglich der Beschränkung auf eine einzige Fallanalyse "Israel" und dahingehend, dass es sich zu Beginn etwas schleppend gelesen hat.

Aber im Verlauf nimmt das Buch sehr an Fahrt auf und wird äußerst interessant. Gerade die vielen Widersprüche in dem (israelischen) Rechtspopulismus, die Fehler und Gründe für das "Versagen" der politischen Linken und die enorme Relevanz von Emotionen in der Gesellschaft und Politik sind wirklich interessant und lassen sich schön mit anderen Theorien verknüpfen.

Ich kann das Buch wirklich nur empfehlen gerade weil Emotionen in der Politik (aber auch Wissenschaft) immernoch viel zu wenig Beachtung finden wobei sich dies zum Glück langsam wandelt.

[Anders Rosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I have read so far this year. Israel serves as a case study in a very thorough description of how populists operate. They uses fear,anger and resentement to make people support them in general elections even though the policiy programs these populists propose don’t benefit most of their voters. It’s the same method all over Western Europe. Everybody should read this book!

[Rochilu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Primer libro del año 2024. Está muy centrado en el caso del Estado de Israel pero sirve muy bien para entender la vuelta de las ultraderechas conservadoras en todo el mundo. Mientras tanto en la Argentina nos gobierna Milei y la libertad 🥲.

[Gunvor · Rating 5 out of 5]

En mycket intressant bok om känslors betydelse i politiken. Hon använder Israel som ”fall”. Så mycket man fick lära sig om Israel, och dess historia vad gäller det politiska systemet. Obehagligt många paralleller kan göras mellan deras högerpolitik och det som sker i Sverige!

[Felipe Saldarriaga Bejarano · Rating 5 out of 5]

una mirada interesante de los mecanismos sociales que se mueven detrás de banderas "políticas", da muchos elementos para identificar rasgos populistas de cualquier lado del espectro y como son vigentes en la actualidad

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Israeli sociologist Eva Illouz investigates the role that fear, disgust, loyalty, religion and resentment play in the particular form of populism wielded by Benjamin Netanyahu. A very interesting look inside Israeli politics, coalition building and discourse.

[Abel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting take. Connecting populism with the emotions of fear, disgust, resentment and love; using the case study of Israel. Analytically (too) simplistic, liberal undertone while not recognizing the contradictions in liberalism used in these emotions.

[vilen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excede al populismo israelí y nos recuerda al populismo de derecha en nuestras latitudes

[Henric Wiktor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intressant och nykter betraktelse över populism uppdelad i fyra känslor som används som vapen.

[Alva Åsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Passande tid att läsa den här boken!

[Uma Guerau · Rating 4 out of 5]

muy muy interesante, que fuerte y que bien explicado todo

[SergeFS68 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy interesante, pero la tendencia a la reiteración de las ideas principales lo vuelve algo cansino y denso.

[Zinnia]

Lite väl teoretisk och tung för mig. Men författaren för fram bra beskrivning av hur rädsla påverkar en stat.

[Tomasz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting material went into this book, but not much of interest came out. I was underwhelmed by the presentation and the conclusions, the latter mostly wishy-washy, and of course October 7 came and dated the whole thing mercilessly. The quality of translation from original German did not help, either ("stream of thought", yes indeed, or "grid" persistently used instead of, I don't know, "framework", probably).

[Agnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone interested in politics and society this is a very interesting book. I have for a long time wondered how populist parties gain such a massive amount of votes around Europe and this book was a true eye opener.

Illouz explains populism with an Israeli pespective, which makes one understand the background of the situation in Israel today.

[Alexandre Patanian · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'un des livres les mieux écrits que j'ai eu la chance de lire. Eva Illouz nous emmène dans une très complète et concrète analyse de la montée de l'extrême-droite en Israel.