Quillette article: "Faith, Fanaticism, and False Prophets"
American populism and religion are bound by a shared desire for order in a rapidly changing world. Christopher Hartwell, head of the ZHAW International Management Institute, together with Timothy Devinney, explains the causes and consequences in a worthwhile article for the online magazine Quillette.
When Donald Trump was re-elected US president last November, contemporary American politics shifted decisively towards populism. “Populism” is a contentious term, often used in modern parlance as a synonym for “policies I do not like.”
The academic literature on the subject, however, generally agrees that it is defined by a Manichean worldview that pits a wicked elite against a virtuous people, and that populist movements are often (but not always) led by a charismatic figure. The us vs. them dynamic seems to be a feature of every strain of populism—left-wing or right-wing, pro- or anti-business, globalist or nativist.