The Bully in the Pulpit: Autocracy, Digital Social Media, and Right-wing Populist Technoculture

Focusing on new media’s disruption of conventional politics, we trace populism’s restylization of mass expression and political power. Through an analysis of the rise of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we argue that online platforms offer new ways of concretizing political fantasies through the affective engagement of the user/citizen. While this seems to endow greater agency to “the people,” political authority is increasingly rerouted to the figure of the leader through religious and charismatic channels. In our elaboration of right-wing populist technoculture, we aim for a broader analytical framework that takes stock of the technological forces reconfiguring the conduct of contemporary politics, arguing that the link between digital social media and right-wing populism is not only contextual but also constitutive.