Conspiracism and Civility
| Published date | 01 May 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221140987 |
| Author | Matteo Bonotti,Steven T Zech |
| Date | 01 May 2024 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221140987
Political Studies Review
2024, Vol. 22(2) 272 –279
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299221140987
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Conspiracism and Civility
Matteo Bonotti and Steven T Zech
Abstract
Conspiracism has become a topical issue in democracies around the world, eliciting debate in
political theory and philosophy regarding its normative and practical implications, especially its
potential negative effects on democratic systems. In this article, we analyse conspiracism through
the lens of civility. The public virtue of civility plays a key role in democratic politics and in public
life more generally, by helping to sustain democratic institutions and facilitating social interaction
despite disagreement. If conspiracism undermines civility and contributes to incivility, as we argue
in this article, that might have distinctively deleterious effects on democratic life. We begin by
unpacking the concept of civility into three key dimensions: (a) civility as politeness, (b) moral
civility and (c) justificatory civility. We then illustrate how conspiracism can contribute to incivility
and harm democracy in each of the three dimensions but also how it can sometimes be harmless
or even helpful for democracy.
Keywords
conspiracism, civility, incivility
Accepted: 3 November 2022
Introduction
Conspiracism has become a topical issue for democracies, eliciting debate in political
theory and philosophy regarding its normative and practical implications (e.g. Cassam,
2019; Cíbik and Hardoš, 2022; Coady, 2018; Moore, 2018; Muirhead and Rosenblum,
2019). But what is conspiracism exactly? In their book A Lot of People Are Saying: The
New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy, which is the focus of this symposium,
Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum (2019) draw a distinction between two main
types of conspiracism. ‘Classic conspiracism – conspiracy with the theory’, as they call it,
‘tries to make sense of a disorderly and complicated world by insisting that powerful
people control the course of events . . . [and] . . . gives order and meaning to occurrences
that, in [some people’s] minds, defy standard or official explanations’ (Muirhead and
Rosenblum, 2019: 2). Conversely, a ‘new conspiracism’ that became especially promi-
nent during Donald Trump’s presidency
Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Corresponding author:
Matteo Bonotti, Politics and International Relations, School of Social Sciences, Monash University,
Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia.
Email: matteo.bonotti@monash.edu
1140987PSW0010.1177/14789299221140987Political Studies ReviewBonotti and Zech
research-article2022
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