Technopopulism and direct representation

This chapter deals with the issue concerning the relationships between technopopulism and the development of new populisms. In particular, the authors identify in the dynamics of transformation of representation one of the elements that contribute to the emergence of what John Keane has called “post-representative politics”. In this context, a central role is played by the media (old and new), which are also elements of acceleration for the emergence of new populist leaderships. In this scenario, on the one hand, hyper-representation trends are developing, and on the other, the emergence of populist narratives based on the centrality of technology appear to be prominent. Technological populism also plays an important role in the emergence of new platform parties and in the deep transformation of the logic of political participation. Direct representation – an expression that apparently constitutes an oxymoron – highlights the way in which the logic of bottom-up representation (the citizens elect their representatives) is replaced by the logic of top-down representation (the hyper-leader claims for being the representative of coherent and unitarian people). In this context, the technopopulist tendencies constitute an important element of legitimisation of the new populisms