Religion and Right-Wing Populism: Between Democratic Backsliding and Authoritarianism - Session 1

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the rise of right-wing populist parties and leaders across various regions has transformed the global political landscape, drawing much scholarly attention to understanding their electoral success and socio-political appeal. At the same time, the interest in the religious dimensions of right-wing populism has intensified in the literature. However, less emphasis has been placed on their relationship to processes of democratic backsliding and authoritarian entrenchment. This panel seeks to bridge that gap by exploring how religion, whether understood as belief system, moral authority, or civilizational identity, functions as both a discursive resource and a political instrument within populist radical right projects. In many contexts, right-wing populist actors have strategically mobilized religious symbols, narratives, and institutions to sacralize “the people”, legitimize illiberal governance, and justify the erosion of democratic norms. Religion often serves to moralize politics, delineating the boundaries between the “virtuous” majority and the “corrupt” or “impure” others, be they secular elites, religious minorities, migrants, or gender-nonconforming groups. These processes often culminate in the consolidation of authoritarian tendencies, characterized by an emphasis on strong, centralized leadership, anti-pluralist policies, and law and order thinking. They typically involve the curtailment of civic and minority rights through the erosion of institutional checks and balances and the reconfiguration of the public sphere along moralistic and exclusionary lines. This panel welcomes comparative, and empirical case studies that investigate the interplay between religion, right-wing populism, and authoritarianism/democratic backsliding in specific national or regional contexts. Papers may focus on (but are not limited to): • The instrumentalization of religion in right-wing populist discourse, governance, and party strategy. • Religious justifications for illiberalism, nationalism, or exclusionary policies, especially toward minorities, migrants, and dissenting voices. • The role of religious institutions and clerical elites in legitimizing or resisting populist-authoritarian projects and phenomena of alliances between churches and populist regimes. • Comparative perspectives on Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, or Jewish populisms and their impact on democratic resilience. • The affective and emotional politics of faith, exploring how religious sentiment, fear, nostalgia, and ressentiment fuel populist mobilization and justifies the populist narratives of exclusion. • Civilizational populism and the redefinition of “the people”, and its enemies/opponents, along moral, cultural, or religious lines. • Religious populism and gender politics, including the sacralization of heteronormativity and the policing of sexuality. • Digital religion and populism, focusing on online sacred activism, religious conspiracy theories, and digital authoritarianism. • Transnational religious populist networks, including cross-border alliances between populist leaders, movements, and faith-based organizations. • Resistance and counter-narratives, examining the responses of faith-based NGOs, progressive clergy, or secular actors to religious populist regimes. • Religious and Ethno-Religious Minorities under Populist Authoritarian Rule. Contributors are encouraged to engage with frameworks such as civilizational populism, sacralized politics, moral panic, and authoritarian populism, as well as to examine the concrete policy outcomes of these dynamics in domains such as education, gender, immigration, and minority rights, and their consequences in terms of democratic backsliding and/or support for authoritarian rule.

Title	Details
Copy, Paste, and Change. A Comparative Study of European and Japanese Populisms	View Paper Details
Epistemic Wars of Position: Transnational Portuguese-Brazilian Conservatism and the Making of the Global Right Bloc	View Paper Details
The Sacralization of Political Legitimacy: Far-Right Protestant Discourse in South Korea	View Paper Details
Sacred Nations, Irredeemable Outcasts: Insights from Turkey, India, and Hungary	View Paper Details