The honest world of ordinary people: Political strategy of Czech techno-populism as a reflection of moral symbolic boundaries of the Czech lower-middle class

The aim of this study is to explore the demand side of techno-populist politics in the Czech Republic from the moral perspective. Populism is a political ideology that separates the society into two antagonistic and homogenous groups, "the pure people" and "the corrupt elite." The variant of populism prevalent in the Czech Republic has been described by scholars as technocratic populism. It proposes the governing based on technical expertise and exact numerical indicators. Its construction of "pure people" derives from the notion of hard working, ordinary people living decent lives whose manners are in sharp contrast with those of "the corrupt elite". Consequently, the technocratic populism undeniably builds on morality concerning social hierarchy, wealth and work. Scholars who analysed the political communication of Czech populist parties paid the most attention to the techno-populist political party ANO and its leader Andrej Babiš. Using the discourse analysis they identified core elements of ANO’s communication: 1) the emphasis on hard work, 2) the construction of Czech ordinary people as honest and reliable, 3) the admiration for successful businessmen and 4) the notion of superiority of business-like management and governing. 1) The notion of hard work has a central position in Babiš’s construction of "ordinary people" who rely on their dutifully performed work; 2) the emphasis on honesty and reliability of "ordinary people" assumes the moral order existing in this imagined community; 3) the admiration for successful businessmen stems from appreciation of those who built their business from scratch by hard work, discipline and inventiveness. This notion builds on strong beliefs in meritocracy and individualism; 4) the business-like management rooted in technical expertise is the most desirable means of governing. This notion reflects the trust in technical fields of science over the social-scientific or philosophical approaches. This study examines to what extent the techno-populist political communication of ANO reflects the moral evaluations regarding social hierarchy, work, success and important social issues made by the Czech lower-middle class, which constitutes half of the Czech population. To explore the moral universe of Czech "ordinary people" this study draws on the theoretical framework of symbolic boundaries developed within the field of cultural sociology. Symbolic boundaries emerge in culture to serve as a basis for making distinctions between social groups by construing the groups of "us" and "them". These groups are construed on the basis of common values and definitions of social exclusion. This study focuses on moral class symbolic boundaries, the type of boundaries based on moral evaluation of people, i.e. oneself and people below and above oneself in social hierarchy. Outcomes of this study are based on twenty-three in-depth interviews with lower-middle class respondents. They expressed their opinions and evaluations of various social groups, rich and poor people, and their own social position. The moral boundaries they draw against people standing on different levels of social hierarchy and the moral worldview they construct to assign meaning to social order correspond to the core elements of ANO’s communication strategy.