Leiden University Student Repository

Leonard, Katherine (2023)

Maintaining Power Through Conspiracies: An Analysis of Conspiratorial Populist Rhetoric from American Politicians

Master thesis | Political Science (MSc)

Populist leaders seem to rely on misinformation, fake news, and conspiracies to expand their power and keep their followers engaged and drown out condemnation from any opponents (Bergman, 2020; Tucker et al 2017). There has been an established relationship between populism and conspiracies, but the literature is still learning exactly in which ways conspiracy theories are used by populist (Taggart, 2018). This thesis conducts a discourse analysis of two controversial American politics to determine in which ways they use conspiracies. It shows populists will utilize conspiracies if they have a disparaging relationship with nonpartisan experts. Once they decide to use conspiracies, they are able to do so to explain why ‘the people’ are not a majority, yet their will should still be considered absolute. And lastly, they are able to limit the amount of information sources they advocate to their followers, potentially isolating voters from truth or criticism.

Populism

Conspiracies

Discourse

Epistemic communities

Author

Leonard, Katherine

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

International Oganisation

Supervisors

Hagen, R

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en