Populism, human rights, and (un-)civil society

In retrospective, the hope – particularly strong in the 1990s - that a vigorous civil society provided a secure pathway towards a robust, consolidated democratic regime and that reinforcing civil society would invariably strengthen the democratic project, seems somewhat naïve. A normative faith in civil society is more difficult to uphold in contemporary times, but has not entirely disappeared. There is currently too little reflection on how civil society is itself a sphere of intense democratic and civil struggle, and that civil society forces cannot be necessarily equated with ‘progressive’, liberal-democratic forces or even that progressive activism might not necessarily lead to an overall strengthening of democracy. This chapter reflects on the role of sociology in the study of populism, and draws attention to the need for a critical sociology of civil society. The chapter discusses sociological approaches to populism and civil society, and outlines a pluralistic approach to populist societal forces and human rights mobilization or ‘lawfare from below’. Three case-studies of European conservative uncivil society actors will be briefly analysed.