Pauline Hanson, One Nation (PHON) and Right-Wing Protective Popular Nationalism: Monocultural Tendencies at the Expense of Social Cohesion

Abstract

This chapter offers a new conceptualisation of popular nationalism in Australia, termed right-wing protective popular nationalism (RWPPN). Taken from theoretical underpinnings which suggest that the rise of popular nationalism in Australia links with the Hanson phenomenon, RWPPN concerns a desire to protect and preserve the national culture and way of life. It associates strongly with a sense of national identity which is defined, at least in part, by opposition to multiculturalism and prejudice to non-white/Anglo ethnic groups. To understand the interplay between RWPPN and twelve other psychological profiling variables (which we argue are related to Hansonism and a broader discourse of ethnic inclusion and exclusion), we present a cluster analysis. Cluster analysis is commonly used in audience segmentation studies to show how the population divides naturally into different groups. The analysis revealed three clear segments in participants’ level of RWPPN sentiment and responses to ethnic groups in Australia, which we labelled “inclusive” (low RWPPN), “guarded” (med RWPPN), and “exclusive” (high RWPPN). The “exclusive” group is strongly emotive and quite large, but is nonetheless outnumbered by the “inclusive” group. Based on these results, we conclude that RWPPN relates to monocultural tendencies and that it does so at the expense of social cohesion.