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Brexit populism and fantasies of fulfilment
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Browning, Christopher S. (2019) Brexit populism and fantasies of fulfilment. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 32 (3). pp. 222-244. doi:10.1080/09557571.2019.1567461 ISSN 0955-7571.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2019.1567461
Abstract
For Leave voters the Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016 was invested with hopes and dreams, of refound sovereignty and control, freedom and liberty, subjectivity and agency. Brexit was an opportunity for both new beginnings and a reclamation of British essences. Winning, however, has not provided the closure promised, and today Leave supporters often appear decidedly anxious and angry. Bringing together literature on ontological security with Lacanian understandings of the (always incomplete) nature of subjectivity, this paper provides an explanation of how it is that ’Brexit’ became invested with such high hopes of fulfilment, but also why the populist ’fantasies’ underpinning Brexit have inevitably fallen short. However, while closure around ontological security and subjectivity is impossible, the paper shows how the promise of fulfilment (and its inevitable failure) can be politically seductive and mobilizing, is a central strategy of populist politics, but as such is also one that is only likely to exacerbate the ontological anxieties and insecurities upon which populist politics preys.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain J Political Science > JZ International relations |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | European Union -- Membership, Referendum -- Great Britain -- History -- 21st century, Great Britain -- Foreign relations -- European Union countries, European Union countries -- Foreign relations -- Great Britain, Great Britain -- Politics and government -- 2007-, European Union -- Great Britain, European Union -- Great Britain -- Public opinion, Public opinion -- Great Britain | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Cambridge Review of International Affairs | ||||||
| Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0955-7571 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 15 February 2019 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 32 | ||||||
| Number: | 3 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 222-244 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/09557571.2019.1567461 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | “This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Cambridge Review of International Affairs on 15/02/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09557571.2019.1567461 | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 24 October 2018 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 15 August 2020 | ||||||
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