ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the relationship between populism and conspiracism based on two representative surveys in Croatia from 2018 to 2022. It is assumed that individually and together, populism and conspiracism oscillate between reactionary and progressive articulations through the whole ideological spectrum, not only at its fringes. Our findings, built through structural equation modeling, confirm this hypothesis. Furthermore, their articulations in terms of the structure and the level of support are not stable but contextually conditioned. It seems that pre-pandemic conditions have been even more conspiratorial and various conspiracisms were then more powerful predictors of populism due to the national-level issues. This should be seen as a precaution against tendencies to locate conspiracism and populism among peculiar and often stigmatized groups as their stable characteristics. Finally, contrary to previous findings from other contexts, Croatian citizens with populist attitudes do not believe in global conspiracy theories, which can be considered the most unwarranted and simplistic conspiracism.
