Building with words: A textual analysis on the shift towards populist sentence structures in housing discourse in Dutch party manifestos from 2000-2024

Abstract

This research studies the change in political discourse surrounding housing in party manifestos from 2000 to 2024, by focusing on the use of populist sentence structure and populist linguistic style in this data. This is done to show if there was an increase in populist linguistic use over time, especially by non-populist parties, and if this differed across the political spectrum. The research aims to answer the question of how political party language use surrounding housing has evolved between 2000 and 2024, and if there has been a general trend toward more populist linguistical tactics.

This research consists of a quantitative textual analysis, where populist sentence structures were made into variables. Afterwards, statistical tests were performed to uncover relationships between the use of these structures and the increase in those over time. This shows a rise in populist sentence structure over time, which means that parties over the entire political spectrum are employing more populist linguistic patterns in their party manifestos.

Despite the overall increase in populist sentence structures, there is no statistically significant difference between different ideologies. This suggests that, over time, populist language patterns have become a more widespread used by parties. The findings suggest that the shift towards using more populist discourse tactics is not bound to a certain ideology or party but is happening over the entire Dutch political landscape.