The Role of Conspiracy Theories in Shaping Populist Ideologies and Movements
Keywords
No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Issue Date
2025-07-04
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
This thesis explores the link between conspiracy theories and the ideology of populist politi-cal parties. After identifying a gap in the literature, namely that thus far the link between con-spiracy theories and populism had not adequately been theorized, a qualitative content analy-sis framework based on four key conspiracy theory elements was developed and applied to the party programs of three left-wing and three right-wing populist parties in Germany and the Netherlands. The findings reveal that conspiracy theories are a fundamental and constitu-tive part of populist ideology. Right-wing populist parties tend to use conspiracy narratives targeting cultural or external “others,” while left-wing populists focus more on economic elites and large corporations. Both groups employ conspiracy theories to delegitimize main-stream parties and political opponents. All four theoretical hypotheses were supported by the analysis. This research is the first to systematically compare party programs regarding the re-lation between populism and conspiracy theories and demonstrates the central role of conspir-acy theories in populist ideology.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen