Towards the Principles of Populist Communication? The Topic of Corruption in the Election Manifestos of Czech Political Parties

The article examines how use of the topic of corruption in the election manifestos of Czech political parties has transformed over the course of the entire post-communist period. The theoretical framework used to grasp the anti-corruption positions expressed in the manifestos is populism. The study builds on the discussions about mainstream political actors (not) adopting populist principles and on the methodological debate around the possibilities offered by populist communication research. Using a content analysis and the principle of triplets, the article analyses the election manifestos of all the parties that were successful in the parliamentary elections between 1990 and 2017 in order to determine whether there was a stronger presence of populist principles in communication on the topic of corruption. Among other things, the study shows that: (1) statements on corruption that are consistent with a populist communication strategy can be found in parties that are not commonly understood as populist throughout the entire researched period; (2) mainstream parties did not respond to the success of populists in the 2010, 2013, and 2017 elections by adopting populist principles; (3) the populists who won a share of power strengthened the elements of populist communication in the next election manifesto.