Civil society, populism and religion

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONThe successes of populist movements and the politicization of religion in the 21 st century raise new questions about the relationship between civil society, populism, and religion. In consolidated western democracies, it is populists who are capitalizing on the critique of oligarchic, corrupt, and insufficiently democratic political establishments and their invocation of religious tropes is striking. So is the use by religious entrepreneurs of populist politics to further their own aims. This article addresses the paradoxical relationship of populist movements to civil society and to religion. We argue that while populist movements, and religious associations emerge and flourish in civil society, the logic of populism and of politicized religion is antithetical to the underlying principles of civil society and, ultimately, to democracy itself. It is important to address the dark side of civil society that these developments represent, in order to show how they undermine instead of realizing its open, plural, critical, inclusive, liberty-and democracy enhancing features.Populist movements excel in revealing democratic dysfunction, and remind us that legitimate political action is not limited to voting, or to professional politicians -it includes civil protests, gatherings, movements, self-organized groups, communications in civil society by ordinary people and civil disobedience (Cohen & Arato, 1992; Moffitt, 2016, p. 145). Religious associations, too, are part of a plural and diverse civil society and, alongside other autonomous voluntary associations, they can generate solidarities and ethical orientations. But the powerful political monistic thrust of populist movements and of politicized religion tend to eviscerate not only civil society's plurality, but also the distinctiveness of the logics of influence and power that undergird the differentiation of civil society and the state, and help maintain the former's autonomy. Thus, we argue that both populist movements and political religion are in but not necessarily of civil society. On their own, but especially when they merge or ally, populist and politicized religious identity politics pose serious challenges to constitutional democracy. But it is also important to grasp the tensions between them and to see that civil society is where alternative democratizing movements, resistance and opposition to oligarchy, to populism and to politicized religion can develop.In the first section of this article we discuss and update our conception of civil society. In the second part, we take up the relation of populism and civil society in order to show how populist movements tend to undermine the very terrain in which they emerge. We identify the specific logic of populism ideal typically, and analyze the difference between populist and other, self-limiting social movements. We then turn to the contemporary link between populism and religious identity politics. Not only do today's populists hijack religion for their own purposes but the reverse is also true...

Is Right-wing Populism a Phenomenon of Religious Dissent? The Cases of the Lega and the Rassemblement National

“…Besides a clearer operationalization of their concepts, scholars who have been studying populism would foster a better accumulation of knowledge if they cross-fertilize their studies with other fields to explore new avenues of research (Mudde andRovira Kaltwasser 2018, 1686). Some recent works on the religious side of populism, arguably one of the most understudied areas in the bourgeoning scholarship on populism (DeHanas and Shterin 2018) seem to go in this direction (Haynes 2019;Ozzano 2019;Arato and Cohen 2017;Brubaker 2017;Marzouki and McDonnell 2016). Arato and Cohen have pointed out how the politicization of religion by right-wing populist movements undermines the open, pluralistic, and inclusive principles that characterize the civil society in democratic countries.…”

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“…Put differently, the logic of populism is deeply authoritarian. 1 It thus behoves democratic theorists to develop a conception of democracy that allows us to grasp the deficits of existing constitutional democracies and models and to improve upon them without losing sight of the achievements of democratic constitutionalism and without throwing out the baby (constitutionalist democracy) with the bathwater (inadequate conceptions that undermine the quality of democracy and cannot ameliorate existing versions). Cristina Lafont's Democracy without Shortcuts does just that.…”