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

TLDR

European populisms frame the self–other divide in civilizational rather than strictly national terms. The study argues that Northern and Western European national populisms constitute a distinct cluster within the broader North Atlantic and pan‑European populist landscape. The shift toward civilizationism is driven by a perceived Islamic civilizational threat and is illustrated by comparing Northern/Western European populisms to the Trump campaign and East Central European populisms. The result is an identitarian Christianism coupled with secularist and liberal rhetoric, which the paper shows challenges conventional conceptions of European national populism in two specific ways.

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.