Phases of Engagement of Radicalization: Methodological Tools for Discursive Analysis of far-right Backlash Politics

This paper proposes a methodological framework for analyzing the discursive strategies employed by far-right political leaders in Chile, providing a comparative perspective to understand similar phenomena in Latin America and Europe. Through an analytical matrix scheme, I map the stages through which informants construct radicalized discourse, enabling a comparative analysis across diverse interviewees and identifying common narrative threads. At the heart of this methodology is the use of life narratives, which track the role of emotions and personal trajectories in shaping far-right backlash politics. This approach offers insights into the emotional underpinnings of radicalization, shedding light on how individual experiences contribute to broader political movements. My analysis reveals four key themes in the radicalization process: i) Previous context: Social trajectories, family, and elitist legacy; ii) Tipping points of radicalization: Ultra-conservative ideologies through Gremialismo; iii) Explicit dissonance and reconfiguring identity: Authoritarian neoliberal backlash and defense of the 1980 Constitution; iv) Transitional processes and new community discourses: Strategies of power after radicalization. These themes demonstrate a significant radicalization phenomenon following the 2019 protests in Chile, characterized by an intensified defense of authoritarian neoliberalism and its primary institutional framework, the 1980 Constitution. This shift illustrates how far-right actors normalize exclusionary politics by framing institutional erosion as necessary for preserving a particular socio-economic order. This study seeks to make a general contribution toward analyzing the personal motivations of elite actors in far-right radicalization processes, and the discursive analysis of rhetoric is used to justify weakening democratic institutions under the guise of defending established orders. The research offers valuable methodological tools and empirical insights for scholars and practitioners seeking to understand far-right radicalization processes in diverse political contexts.