Populism, Media, and the End of Democracy
College
College of Arts and Letters
Department
International Studies
Graduate Level
Doctoral
Graduate Program/Concentration
International Studies
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Like Ancient Athens, "post-democracy" has come for modern democracies. Democratic institutions still exist and seem to function, but they are strained and sick with misuse, especially by populists, and the government increasingly behaves like oligarchy. Like Ancient Athens, there is now a post-modern marketplace of ideas and morality, which facilitates not truth but sophistry as the guiding light. If all ideas are equally legitimate, then so too are the words of a charismatic radical ethnonational populist.
Unlike Ancient Athens, today's populism rides on the winds of mass and social media. Media companies seek profit, which requires engagement, which uses and means outrage, isolation, and radicalization, especially through personalized media, an exemplar of social disengagement.
This kind of radicalizing tool did not exist in Ancient Athens, yet democratically destructive populism still arose. While modern representative democracies are distinct from Athenian direct democracy, they are founded on similar principles, and per Plato's fears, post-democratic populist movements may be endemic to democracy. Media does not cause democratic erosion, but the more technologically advanced it is, the more power post-democratic populism has to breach scale and institutional resilience.
Keywords
Media, Populism, Democracy, Post-democracy, Oligarchy, Radicalization, Post-modernism
Populism, Media, and the End of Democracy
Like Ancient Athens, "post-democracy" has come for modern democracies. Democratic institutions still exist and seem to function, but they are strained and sick with misuse, especially by populists, and the government increasingly behaves like oligarchy. Like Ancient Athens, there is now a post-modern marketplace of ideas and morality, which facilitates not truth but sophistry as the guiding light. If all ideas are equally legitimate, then so too are the words of a charismatic radical ethnonational populist.
Unlike Ancient Athens, today's populism rides on the winds of mass and social media. Media companies seek profit, which requires engagement, which uses and means outrage, isolation, and radicalization, especially through personalized media, an exemplar of social disengagement.
This kind of radicalizing tool did not exist in Ancient Athens, yet democratically destructive populism still arose. While modern representative democracies are distinct from Athenian direct democracy, they are founded on similar principles, and per Plato's fears, post-democratic populist movements may be endemic to democracy. Media does not cause democratic erosion, but the more technologically advanced it is, the more power post-democratic populism has to breach scale and institutional resilience.