ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to relate the current global explosion of populism to the changes in the public sphere that have taken place in recent decades. This chapter focuses on a central feature of the political logic of populism: its performative activity. This is first linked to the new type of public communication defined by the use of social media, as well as by the discursive frames that enable the division of the social and political realm into two camps. Moreover, this is further expanded by the loss of authority of the traditional press and the growing, often uncontrollable, role of social networks. The traditional mechanisms of shaping public opinion are giving way to another scenario, whose nature is at the centre of this chapter: the public sphere is characterized by, on the one hand, the traditional press that promotes a more rational, well-mannered deliberation about factual reality, versus a fast growing online debates where the emotional prevails over the reflective, and the passion over the expertise. The consequences in terms of democratic legitimacy are particularly noteworthy and are the object of a theoretical consideration.
