Overview
- Makes the case that Trump’s presidency demands that conspiracies and conspiracy theories be taken more seriously by political scientists and academics, not simply discarded as social paranoia
- Argues that conspiracies are connected in important ways to fake news, political corruption, surveillance of citizens, and other threats to democracy in the age of Trump
- Finds paranoid conspiracy theories are as likely to be peddled by elites as by populist movements
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About this book
This book focuses on the constant tension between democracy and conspiratorial behavior in the new global order. It addresses the prevalence of conspiracy theories in the phenomenon of Donald Trump and Trumpism, and the paranoid style of American politics that existed long before, first identified with Richard Hofstadter. Hellinger looks critically at both those who hold conspiracy theory beliefs and those who rush to dismiss them. Hellinger argues that we need to acknowledge that the exercise of power by elites is very often conspiratorial and invites both realistic and outlandish conspiracy theories. How we parse the realistic from the outlandish demands more attention than typically accorded in academia and journalism. Tensions between global hegemony and democratic legitimacy become visible in populist theories of conspiracy, both on the left and the right. He argues that we do not live in an age in which conspiracy theories are more profligate, but that we do live in an age in which they offer a more profound challenge to the constituted state than ever before.
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Keywords
Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Daniel C. Hellinger is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Webster University, USA. He has previously published: “Paranoia, Conspiracy, Hegemony in American Politics” in Transparency and Conspiracy: Ethnographies of Suspicion in the New World Order (2003) and “Conspiracy Theory and the Paranoid Style” in American Political Culture: An Encyclopedia (2015), and co-authored The Democratic Façade (2nd edition, 1991). His most recent books are Comparative Politics of Latin America: Democracy at Last? (2014), Global Security Watch: Venezuela (2012), and, as co-editor and contributor, Bolivarian Democracy in Venezuela: Participation, Politics and Culture (2011).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in the Age of Trump
Authors: Daniel C. Hellinger
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98158-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-07458-6Published: 28 December 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-98158-1Published: 20 September 2018
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXI, 300
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour
Topics: US Politics, Political Communication, Media and Communication, Political History