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Populism And Religion Essay

Decent Essays

The relationship between religion and populist movements in Europe has largely been ignored by scholars in political science academia. Although, in recent years there has been an increase of research on this topic, which can likely be attributed with the rise of populist movements globally, but particularly in Europe. Nearly all of the academic publications compiled for this paper have detailed a strong relationship between right-wing populist parties and Christianity in Europe. The particular nature of this relationship varies between authors, but in general, there is agreement that populist parties use religion to invoke an ‘us’ against ‘them’ political narrative to combat the party’s perceived enemies. However, there is a divide in the literature concerning the ramifications of populism’s use of religion. The first camp views populist use of religion as solely a tool to advance divisive, identity politics. The second camp views the relationship as a means for populist parties to conceal authoritarian ambitions under the guise of political theology. These two …show more content…

Nilsson analyzes the analyzes the editorials of the French online journal Riposte Laïque (Secular Retaliation), to gain insight into the use of secularism by anti-Muslim activists from across the political spectrum. These editorials reveal how right-wing populism in France uses secularism, rather than Christianity, to define “the people” against the perceived threat of Muslim immigrants to France (Nilsson, 2015). Nilsson’s analysis shows that religion is not fundamental to populism, but identity politics are. Christianity is less prevalent in French society than in other European states, therefor populist movements appeal to France’s tradition of secularism in order to construct an ‘us’ against ‘them’ narrative from which to advance their

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