Abstract

Neo-populism is a phenomenon associated with the "democracies of the public". There are two different forms of political representation in such democracies: the electoral one and that of the media-driven public opinion. This duality facilitates and stimulates populism. The dynamics is simple: the media offer as authentic social representation the opinion generated by them, which refl ects the "voice from the street" that expresses itself without intermediaries. The old concept of "people" is replaced by that of media-driven public opinion. The article analyzes three neo-populist meanings: the myth of public opinion, the way this is shaped by the communications system and the functions it exerts in the political domain.