Politics and Emotions: The Obama Phenomenon

Marcos Engelken-Jorge is postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the Basque Country.
Pedro Ibarra Güell is a former professor of political science at the University of the Basque Country and member of the research group Parte Hartuz.
Carmelo Moreno del Río is associate professor of political science at the University of the Basque Country.

Mainstream liberal narratives have often depicted politics as a matter of power and competing interests, disregarding emotions or conceiving them as threats to a rational and well-ordered society. In the last decades, however, this viewpoint has been increasingly challenged by a number of scholars researching on the complex and multidimensional role of emotions in politics. This edited collection aims at providing a concise but comprehensive introduction to this area of research. The essays contained in this volume focus on a single case, the Obama phenomenon, illustrating empirically how the variable ‘emotions’ can enrich political analysis. Taken together, the essays reflect the plurality of approaches available to the study of politics and emotions and thus contribute to the cutting-edge debates on this fascinating topic.

The Obama Phenomenon