Predicament of Civilizational Populism

This chapter answers the key questions posed in the introduction, and discusses our findings based on the data we have discussed throughout the book’s chapters. The chapter finds that civilizationalism, when incorporated into populism, helps define populism’s key signifiers: ‘the pure people’, ‘the corrupt elite’, and ‘dangerous ‘others’. Second, the chapter finds that religion is a key element in civilizational populism, but most often understood by civilizational populists to be one element of ‘civilization’. Third, it finds that civilizational populism does not yet possess a strong transnational element, but that many civilizational populist movements are attempting to create transnational links and coordinate with one another. The chapter concludes by identifying gaps in the literature on civilizational populism and calls for increased scholarly attention to this important form of politics.