Nationalism and Populism

This volume explores the connections between emotions and rationality in relation to the rising tide of nationalism in the European Union and globally. It brings together leading experts in philosophy, psychology, political theory, and sociology to provide interdisciplinary perspectives on this timely topic. This volume starts from the hypothesis that certain political emotions-such as feelings of being disrespected or left behind-are complex cognitive-emotional attitudes often wedded to nationalism. Currently, people who harbor these feelings are frequently critical of transnational projects. This volume presents new interdisciplinary research on the ways in which these feelings feed nationalistic fervour and how emotions affect or even undermine rational discourse in politics. Part I focuses on distinguishing kinds of nationalism, their resurgence, and on the use of grievances and resentful politics as governing strategies. Part II moves toward a discussion of knowledge, democracy and populism and a case study of political reasoning in the Catalan independence conflict. In Part III, authors discuss how emotional processes fuel nationalism through the exploitation of anger and fear. Part IV closes this volume reflecting how populism and nationalism challenge transnational projects and organizations, such as the European Union. Nationalism and Populism: Emotions, Reason, and the Crisis of Contemporary Democracy will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in political philosophy, philosophy of emotion and rationality, political theory, cognitive, social and political psychology, and political sociology.

Thomas Sturm (MAE) is ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and a Member of the Academia Europaea. He works on Kant, theories of rationality and their application to politics and education, science studies, and on science policy in the European Union. Selected publications include Kant und die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (2009) and How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind (with P. Erickson et al. 2013) and articles in Kant-Studien, Synthese, Annals of Science, and European Review. Sabine A. Döring is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen, Germany and former State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany. Her research interests include theories of practical reason and ethics, with an emphasis on emotions, and political philosophy. She is the author of Philosophie der Gefühle (2009) and Wissenschaftsfreiheit in der liberalen Demokratie (2026). In 2022, she was awarded an Opus Magnum grant from the Volkswagen Foundation for her forthcoming book Freely Acting in Solidarity. A Liberal Theory of the Common Good which she is currently pursuing as a Research Professor at the Walter Eucken Institut and the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies.

Introduction Thomas Sturm & Sabine Döring I. Nationalism: Populist or Liberal? 1. National-Populism, Ressentimentful Politics, and Autocratization: How Grievance Becomes a Governing Logic Tereza Capelos, Mikko Salmela and Nicolas Demertzis 2. The Resurgence of Nationalism David Miller II. Populism, Nationalism, and Reasoning in Democracy 3. Populism, Knowledge, and Democracy Åsa Wikforss 4. The Catalan Independence Conflict: Political Contexts, Polarized Debates, and Public Reasoning Thomas Sturm III. Emotional Processes and Nationalist/Populist Movements 5. Affective Phenomena in the Political Arena: Appearances of "New Nationalism" in France, Germany, and the USA Achim Stephan and Lucy Osler 6. Exploiting Fear, Selling Greatness: How Populists Engineer Conceptual Schemes Sabine Döring 7. The Aptness of Anger's Expression? The Outbreak of Angry Citizens Teresa Marques IV. Transnational Projects: Questioning Nationalism and Populism 8. Is Direct Democracy Populist and Anti-European? Francis Cheneval 9. European Liberal Democracies Facing Populism: Reasons for Cautious Optimism Stéphane Dion 10. International Responsibility and the Refugee Crisis: Nationalism, Patriotism, and the Ethics of Partiality Robert Audi