Why Populism is Troubling for Democratic Communication

Abstract

In this article, I argue that populism has a troubling relationship with democratic communication. As illustrated by contemporary Latin American cases, populism’s illiberalism is contrary to the existence of the communication commons—a public space characterized by diversity, tolerance, reason, and facts. It is grounded in a binary, agonistic view of politics; an understanding of “the people” as a unified subject; and espousal of post-truth politics. With its brand of divisive politics, populism is unfit to address central communicative challenges of contemporary multicultural democracies. Critical communication scholarship needs to engage both with the rise of populism as well as the challenges for progressive communication amid a toxic atmosphere of intolerance and the balkanization of the public sphere.