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Between nationalism and civilizationism: the European populist moment in comparative perspective

2017/03/03 by Rogers Brubaker · 1 voice · 1,054 citations
Social Sciences · #Conservatism #Gender studies #German legal, social, and political studies #History #Islam #Law #Nationalism #Opposition (politics) #Optimal distinctiveness theory #Philosophy #Political economy #Political science #Populism #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Religion and Society Interactions #Rhetoric #Sociology #Theology

paper · doi:10.1080/01419870.2017.1294700

published in Ethnic and Racial Studies 40(8), 1191-1226 (Routledge)

openalex publication_date 2017/03/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

This paper argues that the national populisms of Northern and Western Europe form a distinctive cluster within the wider north Atlantic and pan-European populist conjuncture. They are distinctive in construing the opposition between self and other not in narrowly national but in broader civilizational terms. This partial shift from nationalism to “civilizationism” has been driven by the notion of a civilizational threat from Islam. This has given rise to an identitarian “Christianism”, a secularist posture, a philosemitic stance, and an ostensibly liberal defence of gender equality, gay rights, and freedom of speech. The paper highlights the distinctiveness of this configuration by briefly comparing the national populisms of Northern and Western Europe to the Trump campaign and to the national populisms of East Central Europe. It concludes by specifying two ways in which the joining of identitarian Christianism with secularist and liberal rhetoric challenges prevailing understandings of European national populism.

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