Populism and Conspiracy Theories

Populism places at the heart of its worldview people-centredness, antipathy towards the elite, and the repudiation of politics as the process for resolving conflict. However one wants to approach this phenomenon – ideologically, strategically, discursively – populists’ ever-increasing adoption of ‘tropes’ such as conspiracy theories seems ever more present. With their conspiratorial mindset, populists often argue that there is an active and ongoing design on the part of the elites to conceal the truth from the people. For populists, conspiracy theories pertain to the very (cultural/political/financial) survival of the people. No matter whether purely instrumental or secondary within the context of their discourse, conspiracy theories therefore fulfill specific mobilising purposes. But, how do they play out in the populist framing of the social and political? And what the potential and scope of these conspiracies? With this paper, we set out to conceptualise the relationship between populism and conspiracism and link this trope to the other core aspects of populism.