Civilizationalism, Religions, and Populism

This chapter provides a review of the literature on civilizationalism, the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis, populism, and discusses civilizational populism. It begins by discussing the concept of civilizationalism, first in the form of Samuel P. Huntington’s thesis that the post-Cold War international environment would be defined by clashing civilizations, and the influence of this theory on real world politics, and describes the flaws in Huntington’s theory. The chapter then discusses populism, describes the various approaches to populism, and explains why this book uses the ideational approach. Following this, the chapter discusses the literature on civilizational populism, and describes how scholars have so far located civilizational populism in Europe and North America, yet there is strong evidence suggesting civilization populism can be found in a variety of non-Western, non-Christian societies, including India, Turkey, Myanmar, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Israel.