[CarlosR]

Modern democracies face a great danger, their conversion into illiberal systems, which can be accompanied by two instruments, populism and the abuse of social networks. They are two different realities, which respond to diverse phenomena, although sometimes they can feed back and strengthen each other.

In any case, we know that the information is no longer a monopoly of journalists and of the big headers, but that, also, it can be obtained and, above all, disseminated through social networks. In the field of information, the need for intermediaries is blurred, as is the case with political parties in the institutional sphere or with labor unions. The weakening of intermediation can be a consequence of the adoption of new forms of democratic participation, where citizens will participate in decision-making processes in a more direct way. However, in general, the blurring of intermediaries brings cause for the introduction of populist speeches, often the prelude to illiberal systems.

Under the populist paradigm, political elites are corrupt almost by definition, while the people appear as a homogeneous and virtuous entity, which does not need institutions that act as a transmission belt between decision and citizenship. Traditional media also tend to embody all the evils of political and economic elites, seeing as their reputation and their prescription function fades.

[EdwinB]

Social networks become very important in modern society, presidents in America use Twitter to inform the population