Daniel Pipes wrote two books on the subject, "The Hidden Hand" (on the Middle East specifically) and "Conspiracy" (on political conspiracy theory in general). In the second book (I haven't read the first), he observes that often, fear of an imaginary conspiracy creates a real counter-conspiracy, and also that in societies where conspiracy theory is part of the ideology, it is inevitable that the theories take on some truth; conspiracy becomes the way that politics works there.
Daniel Pipes wrote two books on the subject, "The Hidden Hand" (on the Middle East specifically) and "Conspiracy" (on political conspiracy theory in general). In the second book (I haven't read the first), he observes that often, fear of an imaginary conspiracy creates a real counter-conspiracy, and also that in societies where conspiracy theory is part of the ideology, it is inevitable that the theories take on some truth; conspiracy becomes the way that politics works there.