USA, France and Poland: Christian Civilizational Populism

Abstract

This chapter examines three manifestations of populist civilizationism in three countries: the Trump administration in the United States, National Rally in France, and PiS in Poland. The chapter asks: What role does civilizationism play in populist discourses? How do the civilizational populists in France, Poland, and the United States define “the people,” “elites,” and “others,” and what are the similarities and differences between the movements? The chapter finds that all three movements may be termed “civilizational populists” under Yilmaz and Morieson’s definition. Civilizational populists posit that “elites” are immoral insofar as they have both turned away from the “good” religion-derived cultural values of “the people” and permitted the immigration of people who do not share the religion and values of “the people,” instead belonging to a foreign civilization—Islam—with different and even antithetical values. However, “the people,” “elites,” and “others” are differently described by Trump, Le Pen, and Kaczyński.

This chapter is a revised version of previously published Open Access material in the following article: Morieson, Nicholas. 2023. “Understanding Civilizational Populism in Europe and North America: The United States, France, and Poland” Religions 14, no. 2: 154. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020154.