Populism and Democracy in Mexico. Leadership, Empty Signifier and Popular Identification

Abstract

The democratic project remains a desirable alternative for addressing major contemporary problems: poverty, global warming, migration, and armed conflicts, among others. Populism, both theoretically and historically, has resurfaced. In Mexico, the triumph of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party in the 2018 and 2024 presidential elections has been conceived as the emergence and development of a populist regime with unprecedented features. In this context, how have “Las Mañaneras” (Morning Talks) operated as a space for interpellation led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador toward the development of populist identification models and the formation of equivalential chains? From an onto-epistemic perspective toward anti-essentialism, based on the political logic proposed by Ernesto Laclau (2005), I develop a political-discursive analysis of “Las Mañaneras” using a qualitative methodological approach. Conclusions: “Las Mañaneras” constituted a central element of the discursive-populist construction in Mexico (2018-2024) of the signifier AMLO/4T, as an empty signifier, within the framework of an oscillation between a charismatic-integrative/pragmatic and charismatic-dominant leadership (Navarrete, 2023) of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.