Benjamin De Cleen
1,2*1 Department of Communication Studies, Vrije Universiteit Brussel-VUB, Brussels, Belgium.
2 Center for Media Data and Society, and Political Science Department, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
Abstract
In their editorial, Speed and Mannion identify two main challenges “the rise of post-truth populism” poses
for health policy: the populist threat to inclusive healthcare policies, and the populist threat to well-designed
health policies that draw on professional expertise and research evidence. This short comment suggests some
conceptual clarifications that might help in thinking through more profoundly these two important issues. It
argues that we should approach right-wing populism as a combination of a populist down/up (people/elite) axis
with an exclusionary nationalist in/out (member/non-member) axis. And it raises some questions regarding the
equation between populism, demagogy and the rejection of expertise and scientific knowledge.