Populisms, ideology and post truth: menaces to democracy and institutional responses

The paper addresses the institutional reactions to the upsurge of right-wing movements, parties and leaders that are considered principal promoters of a regime of post truth that constitute a threat to contemporary democracies. Their common traits are the use of conspiracy theories, manipulation and discredit of intermediaries (experts, media), distorting thus public opinion formation and increasing political polarization. We consider that this approach requires, first, to conceptually the specific meanings given to these interconnections between populism, right-wind ideologies, and post truth to evaluate its potential negative democratic impact. But that we also need to take in account the institutional reactions to countervail this state of affairs through new regulation (on media, use of technology, etc). To do that, we analyze the discursive strategies of the institutional reactions promoted to protect democratic institutions from a systemic perspective (institutions, public sphere)-with special mention on the EU and the Spanish legislation.