Conspiracism in Comparison: The Case of Spain

This case study was composed using the TaCT-FoRSED framework for explorative case studies for conspiracism research (Christoph et. al. 2025). This is a pre-print of the case study to be published soon in an edited volume. The Spanish case shows an interesting example of a post-authoritarian legacy in an European country outside Central and Eastern Europe; the aftermath of the Franco regime is still present today and influences Spanish conspiracism. Typical constellations promoting conspiracism are, as expected, polarisation, low political efficacy, media use, and a weak civil society (resulting from the Franco regime as well). However, Spain seems to deal with conspiracism not exactly bad when compared to other countries. A positive attitude towards science in principle, strong normative commitment to democracy (maybe also a result of post-Francism), and reforms in civic education mitigate the aforementioned pro-conspiracist factors.