Populism, post-truth politics and democracy

Abstract

The confluence of populism and post-truth narratives poses a critical challenge to the foundations of contemporary democracies in Europe and elsewhere, leading some scholars to consider democracy is facing an epistemic crisis. An extensive literature addresses the driving factors of the post-truth era with the bulk of research on citizens’ beliefs in misinformation as well as on the role of social media. Scholars have also been looking at ways to mitigate the effects of the rise of mis- and dis-information. However, there are still many gaps in these evolving scholarly debates. Indeed, the conceptualization and operationalization of post-truth politics, conspiracism and denialism are still a challenge to grasp the phenomenon empirically. Furthermore, so far, most studies neglect the role of the political environment and, in particular, that of political actors (Enders and Uscinski 2021). While the political realm is a key area where misinformation and dubious claims are salient and thriving (Imhoff and Lamberty 2018; Lecheler and Egelhofer 2020; Enders and Smallpage 2020; Pirro and Taggart 2023), comparatively little attention has been paid to the supply side. Finally, while post-truth politics is usually assumed to be a threat to democracy, we still need to investigate empirically the impact of this phenomenon on citizens and on democracy more generally. This panel aims therefore to foster a comprehensive understanding of the interconnected challenges posed by post-truth politics, populism, far-right mobilization, assaults on journalism, and social media conspiracism. Through empirical and comparative analysis, the panel intends on contributing to ongoing scholarly debates on populism, radicalism, post-truth politics and the resilience of democracy in an era of rapid information dissemination and political polarization.

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