A Study Of The Populist Political Practice Of The British Independence Party

In recent years,populism has revived again,sweeping across many European countries.Some populist parties have even achieved mainstreaming transformation,thereby the political landscape of Europe has undergone profound changes.The development of British populism is particularly remarkable.As the main promoter of British populism,UK Independence Party(UKIP)has risen rapidly in the UK.But after the Brexit Referendum,it went into a rapid decline.This dramatic process of the“rise and fall” makes people ask: what are the reasons for the rise and decline of the party? Since UKIP played an important role in the process of the lurking,emerging and changing of the British populist wave,this study intends to clarify a path of the development of British populism,as well as its internal mechanism,practical mechanism and development limit of British populism through the analysis of the development of UKIP,so as to accumulate case materials for the study of populism.UKIP is a populist political party aiming at Brexit,with profound nationalism and conservative spirit.From 2014 to 2016,it reached the peak stage in the history of the development of the party.With the end of the "Brexit" referendum,the party's rapid progress came to a screeching halt and entered the trough stage in its development trajectory.The rise of UKIP has been helped by the growing failure of social dialogue between mainstream parties and voters,and by the failure of fringe parties to grasp the core concerns of British society.Extreme voters with a sense of abandonment have not yet been represented and mobilized by the political system,this provids political space for UKIP.In order to enter the mainstream political arena to achieve its own policy goals,UKIP made policy adjustments after 2010.First,UKIP integrates its traditional Euro-skepticism with anti-establishment and anti-immigration issues,and expands its issue areas by changing the single-issue party approach,combining policy guidelines with the core concerns of voters.Second,UKIP separated itself from the extreme right-wing ideology,and gained the support of moderate voters by returning the party's ideology to the range of political correctness.Third,UKIP expressed the people's anxiety,fear and anger through frequent negative discourse and simplistic political thinking.These expressions arouse the expected audience response,and its audience often be in a state of passion.Fourth,UKIP used a multi-pronged approach in traditional media,social media,and public gatherings for propaganda and organisation mobilization.After 2016,the development of UKIP has been in a sluggish state due to the extreme rightwing of its ideology,the infighting among high-level personnel,the defection of middle-level Party members and the significant decrease of grass-roots party members.How did UKIP get here? The reason is that the party has taken the wrong ideology,returning to the rhetoric of cultural monolarism,however,embracing multiculturalism that was one of the secrets of its previous great success.In addition,the policy adjustment of mainstream political parties and the decline of party organization cohesion are also important factors leading to the decline of UK Independence Party.Benefiting from its populist political practice,UKIP not only stands out in the competition of British political parties,but also reconstructs the expression channels of political demands of marginalized voters,and promotes the transformation and upgrading of populism in Britain from a latent social trend of thought to a political action with strong influence.However,its political vitality deserves continuous attention.