ABSTRACT
The successes of populist movements and the politicization of religion in the 21st 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 chapter 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.
