Populist movements currently represent deep challenges within and for our Western liberal societies and their democratic regimes. Without ignoring different historical path-dependencies which have to be studied carefully, the article instead argues from a structural analysis of populism. For any ethical critique four basic elements are essential: the ideas of "authentic sovereignty!" and of "social homogeneity", the "radical anti-pluralism" and its "culture of ressentiment". Moreover, each of them demands a theological reconstruction in the light of an Protestant ethos of both, democratic life and its idea of fallible citizenship. In facing the new challenges of populist movements, political and civil responsibilities have to overcome their immanent etatism by which government alone is in task of overcoming harmful social polarizations.

Enthalten in:
Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik; 2018/3 Kommentare, Studien, Berichte, Dokumentationen, Diskussionen, Rezensionen, Bibliographie (2018)

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Serie / Reihe: Zeitschrift für Evangelische Ethik

Personen: Polke, Christian

Schlagwörter: Zivilgesellschaft Theologische Ethik Herausforderung Populismus