What is the biggest threat to democracy? Islamism, terrorism, or perhaps dictator regimes? According to researchers from Cambridge University, UK, conspiracy theorists are democracy’s biggest enemy. Out of the tens of thousands of news stories read online during 2013, one that created a huge number of clicks and comments was the BBC’s story titled “Are Conspiracy Theories Destroying Democracy?”

The report was based on the findings of a major new Cambridge University project to investigate the impact of conspiracy theories on democracy. Cambridge University’s five-year, interdisciplinary CRASSH project aims to explore what the pervasiveness of conspiracy theories in the 21st century tells us about the trust in democratic societies.

From the McCanns spending the year denouncing conspiracy theories concerning the abduction of their daughter, to the Illuminati allegedly issuing a video warning something is to be staged on October 1, just ahead of the American elections, the CRASSH researchers are right about one thing – there is a pervasiveness of conspiracy theories in the 21st century. But are the conspiracies really a threat to democracy?









Just a Part of Modern Society?

On its website, CRASHH directors, Professor Evans, Professor Naughton and Professor Runciman say theories and beliefs about conspiracies are an enduring feature of modern societies partly because real conspiracies do exist and have existed in the past. Studying conspiracy theories, the professors believe, provides opportunities for us to make sense of the world and how societies function. Why, for example, have conspiracy theories appeared at particular moments in history, and why?

The ambitious project is not aimed at debunking particular conspiracy theories but to provide a “natural history” of conspiracy theorizing, insists the Conspiracy and Democracy website. In order to craft a “richer understanding of a fascinating and puzzling phenomenon”, the project combines different insights and perspectives of political theorists and historians and investigative methods.

The website collates a number of articles and discussions covering a range of issues. The psychology of conspiracy theories, current controversies relevant to discussions about conspiracy theories, the complexity of such theories and conspiracies related to the assassination of JFK are just several of the categories the different papers are archived in.

One blog titled “The Rise of Conspiracy Theory” clearly demonstrates that beliefs that some covert yet influential organization is responsible for certain events is on the rise. The article includes a chart taken from a simple search on Google Scholar. From the 1990s upwards there has been a big increase in those searching for “conspiracy theory” or “conspiracy theories” in the title of articles on Google Scholar. (1)