The Politics of Blame-Seeking
Strategic Antagonism, Effective Alignment and Benefitting From Backlash
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6344007 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthew Flinders (0000-0003-3585-9010, University of Sheffield), Markus Hinterleitner (0000-0001-9909-2715, IDHEAP, University of Lausanne, Chavannes-près-Renens, Switzerland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 434-453 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00323217241251700 |
| OpenAlex | W4396723343 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
| References cited | 37 |
Why would a politician ever want to be blamed? Under what contextual conditions might blame-seeking behaviour emerge as a rational strategy? What tactics, tools and strategies might they deploy? Where is the empirical evidence of blame-seeking in action and why does it matter? These are the questions this article engages with as it challenges the long-standing ‘self-evident truth’ within political science that blame-is-bad. We argue that a new ‘blame game’ has emerged in which blame generation is deployed not solely to taint opponents but also to demonstrate the blame-seeker’s willingness to challenge convention, break the rules, or side with the marginalized. In a broader context characterized by democratic dissatisfaction, anti-political sentiment and affective polarization, we suggest that blame-seeking assumes a powerful symbolic and performative dimension. Antagonizing certain sections of society and then harnessing the backlash provides a powerful political strategy which challenges traditional scholarly assumptions about credit and blame existing in a zero-sum relationship. We illustrate these arguments using the case of Boris Johnson’s rise to the British premiership. A focus on blame-seeking, we suggest, expands our understanding of what politicians say and do to achieve their goals in polarized political contexts
Antagonism · Backlash · Biology · Blame · Business · Economics · Political science · Politics · Computer Science · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Psychoanalysis, Philosophy, and Politics · Psychology · Social Psychology
Credit and Blame
The Global Rise of Populism
Cultural Backlash
Governing after Crisis
Choices, values, and frames
Why feelings trump facts
Tales of the unexpected
Performing populism
Taking the Bait? Lessons from a Hate Speech Prosecution
On credit and blame
Fear and loathing across party lines’ (also) in Europe
The New Politics of the Welfare State
A Republic, If You Can Keep It
The Conservative Party Leadership Transition from Theresa May to Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson to the Rescue? How the Conservatives Won the Radical-Right Vote in the 2019 General Election
The Politics of Blame Avoidance
The Risk Game and the Blame Game
Anticipatory and reactive forms of blame avoidance
Political challengers and norm erosion in advanced democracies
Harnessing Backlash
Populism as a Transgressive Style
The Danger of Self-Evident Truths
The Origins and Consequences of Affective Polarization in the United States
The Nays Have it
The Authentic Appeal of the Lying Demagogue
Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States
| Unique citing works | 6 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 6 |