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Populism and World Politics pp 103–135Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Sedimented Practices and American Identity in Donald J. Trump’s Election Campaign

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Part of the book series: Global Political Sociology ((GLPOSO))

Abstract

This chapter makes the case for increased attention to the discourse theoretical notion of sedimented practices in populism research and International Relations (IR). Sedimented practices circumscribe the domain of credibility and intelligibility of a society’s socio-economic setting. In contrast to previous studies in both populism research and IR that stress populists’ radical break with traditional policy, a focus on sedimented practices shifts our attention to the need for any successful project to resonate with established discursive patterns to gain credibility. We illustrate the theoretical argument drawing on an example that, at least at first glance, seems to be a prime example for populists’ proneness to break with tradition—Donald J Trump’s campaign statements on foreign policy. We argue that the notion of sedimented practices helps tease out how even Trump’s foreign policy vision draws on deeply established traditions of US foreign policy for legitimacy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kiel University, Kiel, Germany

    Dirk Nabers & Frank A. Stengel

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  1. Dirk Nabers
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Correspondence to Dirk Nabers .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. International Political Sociology, Kiel University, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

    Frank A. Stengel

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

    David B. MacDonald

  3. International Political Sociology, Kiel University, Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

    Dirk Nabers

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Nabers, D., Stengel, F.A. (2019). Sedimented Practices and American Identity in Donald J. Trump’s Election Campaign. In: Stengel, F.A., MacDonald, D.B., Nabers, D. (eds) Populism and World Politics. Global Political Sociology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04621-7_5

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