Understanding how the bond between the populist leader and "The people" is formed: Hugo Chávez and Donald Trump cases

This thesis questions the formation of the bond between the populist leader and his/her followers. This relationship is key for understanding the populist phenomenon. Until now, studies have mostly addressed populist leader's charisma as an explanation for his/her appeal to the people. The present study employs a selection of election campaign speeches from two of the most controversial populist figures of recent times, Hugo Chávez and Donald Trump, and it focuses on the populists' construction of the leader-people bond. For this purpose, the study utilizes directed content analysis method. The findings point out five mechanisms which are incorporated into populist leaders' narrative, and which are used to create the leader-people bond. These are: self-construction as "the leader," the non-verbal communication, the construction of the concept of "the people", the identification of a crisis and the people's mobilization. The study concludes by arguing that the leader-people bond is constructed with these mechanisms, yet the weight of these mechanisms changes from one political/cultural context to another. Also, the strength of this bond depends on the people' effective engagement with these mechanisms.