Abstract
One tenet of populism is that it speaks for the ‘common people’ in opposing those it claims have seized the state. Because of how we experience the world and what we may call our natural gullibility, populists can spread their messages easily. Because passions are contagious, false news that excites or frightens us travels more quickly, spreads more widely, and penetrates more deeply into the body politic than the truth. Populists making false claims are thus at an advantage over those who speak the truth. The question is whether any form of government can withstand the stress a populist and populism creates. We shall find that our form of government has some features that encourage optimism.
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Robison, W.L. (2020). #ConstitutionalStability. In: Navin, M.C., Nunan, R. (eds) Democracy, Populism, and Truth. AMINTAPHIL: The Philosophical Foundations of Law and Justice, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43424-3_13
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