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Public Emotions and the Affective Forces of Social Activism, Vol. 32 - 2025, No. 2
Affective Authoritarianism and Anti-Government Protests: Demokracija’s Journalistic Narratives as Acts of “Making People Feel” in Authoritarian Ways
In 2020, the world faced a global state of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In Slovenia, the situation coincided with the formation of Janez Janša's government in March. Janša's rise to power—and the rapid introduction of Covid-19 measures that significantly restricted public and civic space—prompted widespread resistance, most visibly through grassroots initiatives such as the anti-government bicycle demonstrations, also known as the Friday Protests. During this period, private media outlets closely affiliated with Janša's Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), including Demokracija magazine and Nova24TV, played an active role in shaping the political discourse, also in relation to the protests. This paper examines the affective dimensions of journalistic narratives about the anti-government protests as published in Demokracija magazine between 1 March 2020 and 28 February 2021. Drawing on qualitative content analysis of 41 articles, the study explores journalistic narratives as acts of “making people feel.” It engages with the concept of affective authoritarianism, understood as a political process that simultaneously mobilizes and generates specific affective intensities, emotions, and atmospheres that render individuals more receptive to authoritarian values, attitudes, and practices. This perspective contributes to ongoing scholarly debates by highlighting the affective conditions that intensify authoritarianism within formally democratic states.
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