Brexit populism and fantasies of fulfilment

TLDR: For Leave voters the Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016 was invested with hopes and dreams, of refound sovereignty and control, freedom and liberty, subjectivity and agency as mentioned in this paper. But it was an opportunit...

Abstract: For Leave voters the Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016 was invested with hopes and dreams, of refound sovereignty and control, freedom and liberty, subjectivity and agency. Brexit was an opportunit...

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BREXIT POPULISM AND FANTASIES OF FULFILMENT
Christopher S. Browning
Department of Politics and International Studies,
University of Warwick,
Coventry,
CV4 7AL,
UK.
c.s.browning@warwick.ac.uk
Tel: 02476 572556
Accepted for
Cambridge Review of International Affairs
23 October 2018
Acknowledgement: I would like to thank the Guest Editors, the anonymous reviewers and
participants at the Wormuth Symposium on ‘Populism and Insecurity in International
Relations’ for comments on drafts of this paper.
Keywords: Brexit; Populism; Ontological Security; Fantasy; Anxiety; Lacan

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BREXIT POPULISM AND FANTASIES OF FULFILMENT
For Leave voters the Brexit referendum of 23 June 2016 was invested with hopes and
dreams, of refound sovereignty and control, freedom and liberty, subjectivity and
agency. Brexit was an opportunity for both new beginnings and a reclamation of British
essences. Winning, however, has not provided the closure promised, and today Leave
supporters often appear decidedly anxious and angry. Bringing together literature on
ontological security with Lacanian understandings of the (always incomplete) nature of
subjectivity, this paper provides an explanation for how it is that ’Brexit’ became
invested with such high hopes of fulfilment, but also why the populist ’fantasies’
underpining Brexit have inevitably fallen short. However, while closure around
ontological security and subjectivity is impossible, the paper shows how the promise of
fulfilment (and its inevitable failure) can be politically seductive and mobilising, is a
central strategy of populist politics, but as such also one that is only likely to exacerbate
the ontological anxieties and insecurities upon which populist politics preys.
Introduction
Following the Brexit referendum the media spotlight often focused on how the vote to leave
the European Union generated deep feelings of anxiety amongst many Remain
voters/supporters (see Browning 2018a). Less commented upon is that Leave voters
increasingly have also exhibited similar concerns and anxieties. This is perhaps surprising
given that it might be presumed that they would have welcomed the referendum result.
Indeed, unexpected as it was, the result was met with joy and euphoria by some, generating
a sense of emotional and ontological fulfilment of long held dreams, at least amongst avid
Eurosceptics. But, for other Leave voters the result’s unexpected nature caused anxiety – as
exhibited in widespread exhortations that ‘I never expected this to happen’. Over time anxiety
amongst Leave voters has become more widespread, and often combined with expressions
of anger. Fears of the referendum being ‘stolen’ and ‘betrayed’ have been palpable, with the
euphoria of 23 June 2016 somewhat dissipated. Thus, while some Leave voters have exhibited

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remorse, for others the unfolding of the Brexit process only seems to have consolidated a
sense of political identity in polar opposition to that of Remainers.
This paper explores this prevailing sense of ontological anxiety and anger amongst Brexit
supporters by focusing on how the referendum became invested with the emotional politics
of identity and subjectivity. Obviously, non-identitarian arguments were also important in
shaping voters’ preferences, but for many the referendum became (or subsequently ‘has
become’) a deeply emotional experience in which ‘leaving’ or ‘remaining’ in the EU has been
ascribed with fundamental ontological significance. It is only by recognising this that
manifestations of anxiety and anger amongst Leave voters really make sense.
To develop the argument, the paper first draws upon the ontological security literature in
international relations, a literature that sets aside concerns with physical and economic
security to focus on subjects’ ability to keep existential anxieties at bay and to ‘go on’ in
everyday life (Giddens 1991; Tillich 1952/2014) – what Laing (1959) referred to as the ‘security
of being’. Using this framework, the next section explores some of the ontological anxieties
that played into (and were also cultivated during) the referendum campaign. To this extent
the Leave campaign found fertile ground in feelings of ontological insecurity experienced
across a wide cross-section of the population, often connected to a disparate sense of
everyday economic, social and political crisis. Section three then develops a Lacanian-inspired
emphasis on how subjects are drawn towards fantasmatic narratives of identification,
narratives that promise to respond to the subject’s desire for ontological security and to
achieve a complete and full identity, but which are inevitably doomed to fail. This Lacanian
turn provides an important addition to the developing work on ontological security, where
the emphasis has been on establishing the extent to which subjects are driven by a need to
cultivate a sense of stability around self-identity, but where less attention has been paid to
why subjects become attached to particular identities in the first place (e.g. Mitzen 2006;
Steele 2008). As Solomon (2013: 103-4) highlights, this requires moving beyond concerns of
social construction in order to explore how successful identity discourses activate affect and
desire.

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Section four applies this framework to show how the Leave campaign was built around a
series of (populist) fantasy narratives promising freedom, liberation, subjectivity and agency,
fantasies which while offering promises of fulfilment and closure, were often both highly
nostalgic and incompatible. Particular attention is paid, however, to how Brexit fantasies were
premised around an activating ‘if only’ element via the identification of obstacles to be
overcome that provide added drama to the fantasy and also create space for a transgressive
politics challenging established norms of political discourse. Section five then considers the
Referendum’s aftermath and explores how Brexit fantasies have failed to provide the
fulfilment promised and why they are unlikely to do so no matter the final outcome of the
Brexit negotiations. This section therefore provides an explanation for the (re)emergence of
ontological anxieties amongst Leave voters, despite their victory – anxieties that are not least
generated by the inherent contradictoriness of different Brexit fantasies. However, instead of
resulting in their decline it is shown how Brexit fantasies have rather been reactivated through
a heightened politics of polarisation between Leavers and Remainers.
In conclusion, the paper argues that while the promise of closure central to populist fantasies
that have underpinned much of the politics of Brexit has been emotionally seductive and
politically mobilising it is also fundamentally problematic, offering impossible promises of
fulfilment that may therefore only end up further enhancing feelings of disillusionment,
alienation and ontological anxiety amongst those to whom they appeal. In doing so, however,
it is raising significant challenges for a polity in which social trust is declining.
Ontological Security
The referendum’s unexpected outcome has resulted in various attempts to account for it.
Explanations vary in terms of identifying and emphasising different political, cultural,
economic and social factors. While drawing on these, this paper emphases more
psychological dimensions by engaging literatures on ontological security and Lacanian notions
of subjectivity. We start with questions of ontological security, the aim being to show that
come the referendum campaign an environment of widespread societal anxiety and

Frequently asked questions

Q1. What are the contributions in this paper?

For instance, this paper argued that Leave voters increasingly have also exhibited similar concerns and anxieties following the Brexit referendum, with the result being met with joy and euphoria by some, generating a sense of emotional and ontological fulfilment. 

Q2. What is the main argument of the paper?

In conclusion, the paper argues that while the promise of closure central to populist fantasies that have underpinned much of the politics of Brexit has been emotionally seductive and politically mobilising it is also fundamentally problematic, offering impossible promises of fulfilment that may therefore only end up further enhancing feelings of disillusionment, alienation and ontological anxiety amongst those to whom they appeal. 

Q3. What is the main cause of existential anxiety?

Although the most obvious cause of existential anxiety relates to anxieties of death and non-being, existential anxieties can also be connected to a foreboding sense of meaninglessness and emptiness in life, or to feelings of guilt and shame (Tillich 2014: 38-51). 

Q4. What is the importance of establishing a sense of home?

if one’s sense of home becomes unsettled (for instance, because it is no longer recognised by others) this can disrupt feelings of belonging embedded within established narratives of self-identity and habituated routines, generating anxieties and imperilling ontological security (Noble 2005: 114). 

Q5. What is the role of the home in the ontological security of the subject?

‘Home’ contributes to ontological security by locating the subject in time and space, representing a place of roots and belonging, safety and certitude in an otherwise changing world, and a secure base upon which identities can be constructed (Kinnvall 2004: 747; Noble 2005: 113; Dupuis and Thorns 1998: 43). 

Q6. What is the role of the ontological security seeker?

ontological security-seeking subjects are typically driven towards cultivating a particular place and set of relationships as representing ‘home’ (Dupuis and Thorns 1998), and where a particular notion of home becomes integrated as a fundamental part of routinized narratives of self-identity. 

Q7. What was the message of the Vote Leave website?

As such, Leave campaign messages also appealed directly to nationalist desires that the country maintain/recapture its sense of ‘distinction’, something it was argued the EU was subverting through its overbearing laws and regulations. 

Q8. What are the main themes of this paper?

While drawing on these, this paper emphases more psychological dimensions by engaging literatures on ontological security and Lacanian notions of subjectivity. 

Q9. What is the main argument of Finlayson’s paper?

Broadly speaking, Finlayson argues that the more people felt they had benefitted culturally and economically from globalisation the more likely they were to vote Remain, while those who felt they had lost out in these terms tended to vote Leave. 

Q10. What can be done to help the subject achieve a full and stable identity?

Fantasies can therefore further support processes of securitisation and enemy othering that establish a form of stability and ontological security by identifying threats that reaffirm the subject’s sense of self-identity and that become a focus for action. 

Q11. What has been the effect of Brexit on the British people?

Both during the referendum and after a core claim was that Britain’s EU membership had held it back, preventing it from realising its self-identity and truly flourishing. 

Q12. What is the role of the notion of nationhood in the biographical narratives of people?

notions of nationhood are often central to people’s biographical narratives of self-identity and their sense of self-esteem and ontological security (Kinnvall 2004: 742-4; Krolikowski 2008), and not least become routinised and reinforced in the everyday activities, symbols and rituals of ‘banal nationalism’ (Billig 1995; Edensor 2002; Skey 2011). 

Q13. What is the purpose of the paper?

This paper explores this prevailing sense of ontological anxiety and anger amongst Brexit supporters by focusing on how the referendum became invested with the emotional politics of identity and subjectivity. 

Q14. Why is the ontological security literature so silent?

This is because, despite its emphasis on subjects’ need to develop and routinize biographical narratives of self-identity, the ontological security literature is essentially silent on how subjects become attached to those identities in the first place (Browning and Joenniemi 2017). 

Q15. What is the problem with the idea of the 52% representing the will of the people?

the idea of ‘the 52%’ representing the will of the people has become a common means of trying to shut down debate – as if the opinions of the 48% lack legitimacy and as if the 52% all voted for the same understanding of Brexit (Davies 2017; Wincott 2017: 685). 

Q16. What is the main argument in Lacanian psychoanalysis?

Lacanian psychoanalysis starts from the premise that the idea of a single, coherent and unified subject is nothing more than ‘an imaginary construct that the individual needs to believe in to compensate for a constitutive lack that lies at the core of her (or his) identity’ (Epstein 2011: 334). 

Q17. What was the tweet about the shootings in Orlando?

EU tweet on 13 June that linked shootings in Orlando, Florida, to EU free movement – a tweet that followed earlier claims that EU membership left the UK open to Paris-style terror attacks. 

Q18. What is the affective pull of fantasies?

The affective pull of fantasies can also be influenced by their particular form, which in the case of Brexit was of a generally nostalgic orientation. 

Q19. What was Boris Johnson’s view of Brexit?

In contrast to Remainers’ criticisms that Leavers were parochial xenophobes, Boris Johnson (2016) proclaimed Brexit to be ‘the great project of European liberalism’, while it is the European Union ‘that now represents the ancien regime’. 

Q20. What is the extent to which the referendum was made in England?

Evident here, therefore, is the extent to which during the Referendum, in England at least, a sense of national identity had become constituted in opposition to EU membership.