Abstract
This paper examines the existing literature on the relationship between religion and populism, and is intended as a starting point for further examination of the relationships between populism, religion, and emotions. This paper systematically reviews the various aspects of the populist phenomenon. After a discussion on different definitions of populism, this paper looks at how the literature discusses the causes of populism, mainly socio-economic factors and emotive factors. Then it discusses how religion and populism interact and can be divided in two broad categories of religious populism and identitarian populism. While, on the surface, the two share similarities, this paper reviews populist manifestations across the world to draw the distinct features between the two forms. Lastly, while pointing out the salient features of religious populism and identitarian populism, this study points out gaps in the research on the relationship between religious populism and other phenomena such as transnational populism, the psychology of populism, the role of emotions in creating support for populism, and populism in Western and non-Western contexts for future areas of research in the field.
Highlights
During the current populist era in global politics (Laclau 2005; Albertazzi and McDonnell 2008; Mudde 2010; Moffitt 2016), religion has become a key component of populist discourses across the world (Marzouki et al 2016)
Identitarian populism is superficially similar to religious populism, but it does not possess a political programme based upon religious teachings, nor does it attempt to force religion upon a society, or run a society according to the teachings of a particular religion
Identitarian populism is superficially similar to religious populism, but it does not possess a political programme based upon religious teachings, nor does it attempt to force religion upon a society or run a society according to the teachings of a particular religion
Summary
During the current populist era in global politics (Laclau 2005; Albertazzi and McDonnell 2008; Mudde 2010; Moffitt 2016), religion has become a key component of populist discourses across the world (Marzouki et al 2016). 1191), right-wing populists have created religious populisms defined by major world religions, which they can wield against religious minorities within their own nations. We show that populism’s civilisational dimension (Brubaker 2017) allows populists to elicit and/or exploit emotions among the general public which are associated with religious belonging. This does not negate the fact that other ideologies/movements make use of and even exploit emotions. We show how religious and identitarian populists are able to elicit and exploit emotions in the general population by adding a civilisational aspect to the existing vertical and horizontal dimensions of populism Our paper describes a number of gaps in the literature on populism, chief among them the role of emotions in driving populist mobilisation and its interplay with religion
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