Populism and Conspiracy: A Historical Synthesis of American Countersubversive Narratives

• Published date: 01 May 2019
• Author: Nathan Jessen
• Date: 01 May 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12275

Populism and Conspiracy: A Historical

Synthesis of American Countersubversive

Narratives

By NathaN JesseN*

abstract. Recent public concern about political conspiracy theories

and disinformation has led some to favor restrictions on free speech

or call for greater government transparency. These proposals are likely

to fail, as they are based upon the faulty assumption that belief in

conspiracies is a product of ignorance. It is surprising that few scholars

in recent years have focused on the special connection between

conspiracy theories and the populist movements that commonly

spawn them. Historically, the American system has restricted political

action outside certain normal bounds, eventually encouraging

frustrated citizens to develop new opposition movements. Populists

then adopt conspiracy theories as tools to reshape political coalitions

and forge unified organizations of their own. In light of the functional

purpose of conspiracy theories and the oppositional critique of

populist movements, conspiratorial narratives no longer appear to be

the product of ignorance.

Introduct ion

The political campaigns of 2016 and their surprising results stunned

many Americans and forced them to acknowledge the reemergence

of populism in their own country. In the immediate aftermath, many

also sought to understand the rise of a parallel phenomenon that

some believed had influenced the outcome. False stories and con-

spiratorial narratives about the candidates (especially Hillary Clinton)

had been circulating on social media sites such as Facebook and

Twitter. Silverman (2016) indicates that these works of fiction proved

American Jour nal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 78, No. 3 (May, 2 019).

DOI: 10 .1111/ajes.122 75

© 2019 American Journa l of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

*Ph.D. in history and Master’s degree in Public Policy. Author of Populism and

Imperialism: Politics, Culture, and Foreign Policy in the American West, 1890–1900

(University Press of Kansas 2017). Currently a postdoctoral fellow in the University of

Maryland’s School of Public Policy. Email: njessen@terpmail.umd.edu

676 The American Journal of Economics and Sociology

substantially more popular among Facebook users than political news

stories from reputable agencies. In the years that have followed, nei-

ther the right-wing populist movement that emerged in 2015–2016

nor the rapidly multiplying conspiracy theories associated with it have

shown any signs of diminishing. Quite the opposite. With a com-

mander-in-chief who has endorsed false narratives and surrounded

himself with the most prominent exponents of pulp-fiction revisionist

histories, it seems likely that conspiracy theories will be more effec-

tively disseminated than ever before.

Some elected officials and members of the media responded be-

latedly with alarm to the prominence of these false narratives. If the

line between truth and fiction is becoming blurred, some authority

must step in, they suggested. A few have noted with approval that

European free speech laws are much more restrictive, and that gov-

ernments there have successfully pressured Internet firms to curtail

derogatory comments (PBS News Hour 2016; Kane 2016; Schwencke

2017). Others have faith that the titans of the tech industry will inter-

vene by censoring social media posts, false or inflammatory political

advertisements, or questionable search results (Scharfenberg 2016;

Solon 2016; Nicas 2018). Still more see growing public suspicion to

be a problem of education, convinced that people adopt conspirato-

rial explanations only because they are too ignorant to know better

(O’Donnell 2016; Collins 2018). The views of policymakers and mem-

bers of the media reflect ideas that are in line with those held and de-

bated in the academic community. Many of the researchers who have

studied conspiracy theories and disinformation as a policy problem

have likewise claimed that conspiratorial narratives can be effectively

quashed through the use of education campaigns, increased trans-

parency, or some form of publicly or privately sanctioned censorship

(Seidman 2018; MacKinnon 2018; Bartlett and Miller 2010; Sunstein

and Vermeule 2009; Olmstead 2009). This line of reasoning seems

based on the questionable premise that current discontent has its ori-

gins in these narratives and is thus irrational. Troublingly, their recom-

mendations also appear to be rooted in a faulty understanding of how

conspiracy theories operate.

677Populism and Conspiracy

The influence of political conspiracy theories—or countersub-

versive narratives, as some refer to them—becomes more apparent

by examining them within the context of the movements that cre-

ate, disseminate, and strategically deploy these theories. Many of

the 20th-century historians who recognized the importance of these

narratives grounded their studies within analyses of outsider move-

ments (Davis 1969; Wood 1969; Bailyn 1967; Hofstadter 1964). Richard

Hofstadter (1955, 1964), in particular, noted the connection between

fictive accounts of causation and populist movements. This trend in

scholarship, once so strong, seems to have diminished over time. In

recent years, researchers with a more laser-like focus on the study of

conspiratorial beliefs have largely downplayed the populist character

of the movements that utilize them. While many of their works note

America’s long history of public suspicion, they have also tended to

concentrate on modern examples, often leading them to attribute ac-

ceptance of conspiracy narratives to contemporary social and cultural

trends (Lee 2011; Olmstead 2009; Fenster 2008; Goldberg 2001; Rogin

1987). Obviously, much is missed by failing to examine these narra-

tives outside their full historical or political context.

The lengthy tradition of populist-based fears of conspiracies in

America suggests there are enduring elements of the political or cul-

tural landscape that help perpetuate this tendency. The purpose of

this study is to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how

conspiracy theories function in relation to populist movements. First,

it will be necessary to ask how countersubversive narratives fit into

populist analyses of authority. While not all populists employ con-

spiracies to explain the origins of various problems or issues, a brief

look into the defining characteristics of both the movements and the

narratives demonstrates the complementary nature of each to the

other. Next, a survey of the specific roots of both public suspicion of

government and the origins of political movements of “the people” in

18th-century America is important. Fear of conspiracy helped spur the

founders to revolt, but fear of populism shaped the modern structure

of government; both would have consequences well into the future.

Finally, I will explain how populists come to accept and then utilize

conspiracy theories to impact the existing political order. Populists