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Resonance, civil society and politics – understanding the populist turn in state-civil society relations

Scaramuzzino, Gabriella LU and Scaramuzzino, Roberto LU (2026) Nordic Conference on Civil Society Studies
Abstract
This paper explores the way in which the relationship between civil society and the state in times of populist governance can be understood from the point of view of Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance. We apply Hartmut Rosa’s (2019) theory about a resonant society to understand how the populist turn in politics and state-civil society relations is related to broader societal processes such as acceleration and alienation in modern society.
In applying the theory to the phenomenon of right-wing populism, we ask the question of whether the rise to power of right-wing populist parties can be understood as consequence of the late modernity developments described by Rosa (2019). Processes of acceleration and alienation can indeed be seen as... (More)
This paper explores the way in which the relationship between civil society and the state in times of populist governance can be understood from the point of view of Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance. We apply Hartmut Rosa’s (2019) theory about a resonant society to understand how the populist turn in politics and state-civil society relations is related to broader societal processes such as acceleration and alienation in modern society.
In applying the theory to the phenomenon of right-wing populism, we ask the question of whether the rise to power of right-wing populist parties can be understood as consequence of the late modernity developments described by Rosa (2019). Processes of acceleration and alienation can indeed be seen as favoring some of the key aspects of populism (Susen 2020). In fact, acceleration potentially triggers a sense of insecurity to which populist rhetoric can have compelling answers (Betz & Johnsson 2004) related to turning back the clock to a more traditional way of life. Alienation in its turn creates a sense of detachment from the world to which right-wing populist parties tend to speak by promoting strong links to a charismatic leader and a strong sense of a “we”, the people, against “them” the elites and the non-natives (Betz & Oswald 2022).
While we can rather easily understand the rise of right-wing populism as a consequence of acceleration and alienation, a rather intriguing question is whether right-wing populist parties tend to reinforce acceleration and alienation when they get access to power. If we understand “populist governance” as the way in which these parties tend to govern when they get access to political decision-making (Muno & Pfeiffer 2022), the question is whether this style of politics is not only a consequence of a less resonant society but also can become one of the causes of the loss of resonance.
Many civil society organizations in liberal democracy are entrusted with the role of contributing to resonance by strengthening social ties, participating in the public debate, promoting the rights of societal groups and developing trust (cf. Arato & Cohen 2022). The view of the representatives of these “resonance chambers” to paraphrase the musical metaphor of Rosa is important for understanding populist governance’s contribution to acceleration and alienation and in continuation loss of resonance in today’s state-civil society relations.
With this paper we want not only to assess whether populist governance is driving acceleration and alienation but also to understand how. To do so we analyze the way in which established civil society organizations in Sweden perceive reforms implemented by the government. The study has been carried out in 2025 when the Swedish government was influenced by the Sweden Democrats, a right-wing populist party. We also complement the interview data by exploring the style of communication of government and civil society in the public debate through traditional and social media data.

References
Arato, A. & Cohen, J.L. (2022). Populism and civil society: the challenge to constitutional democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Betz, H-G & Johnson, C. (2004) Against the current—stemming the tide: the nostalgic ideology of the contemporary radical populist right, Journal of Political Ideologies, 9:3, 311-327, DOI: 10.1080/1356931042000263546
Betz, HG., Oswald, M. (2022). Emotional Mobilization: The Affective Underpinnings of Right-Wing Populist Party Support. In: Oswald, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Populism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80803-7_7
Muno, W., & Pfeiffer, C. (2022). Populism in power—A comparative analysis of populist governance. International Area Studies Review, 25(4), 261–279. https://doi.org/10.1177/22338659221120067
Rosa, H. (2019). Resonance: a sociology of our relationship to the world. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Susen, S. (2020) The Resonance of Resonance: Critical Theory as a Sociology of World-Relations?. Int J Polit Cult Soc 33, 309–344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-019-9313-6
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conference name
Nordic Conference on Civil Society Studies
conference location
Lund, Sweden
conference dates
2026-04-23 - 2026-04-24
project
Civil society and populism: How the rise to power of populist parties affects State-civil society relations
language
English
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yes
id
1b92c978-673f-4883-b737-6c8e5c01543d
date added to LUP
2026-06-02 08:22:33
date last changed
2026-06-02 08:40:33
@misc{1b92c978-673f-4883-b737-6c8e5c01543d,
  abstract     = {{This paper explores the way in which the relationship between civil society and the state in times of populist governance can be understood from the point of view of Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance. We apply Hartmut Rosa’s (2019) theory about a resonant society to understand how the populist turn in politics and state-civil society relations is related to broader societal processes such as acceleration and alienation in modern society.<br/>In applying the theory to the phenomenon of right-wing populism, we ask the question of whether the rise to power of right-wing populist parties can be understood as consequence of the late modernity developments described by Rosa (2019). Processes of acceleration and alienation can indeed be seen as favoring some of the key aspects of populism (Susen 2020). In fact, acceleration potentially triggers a sense of insecurity to which populist rhetoric can have compelling answers (Betz &amp; Johnsson 2004) related to turning back the clock to a more traditional way of life. Alienation in its turn creates a sense of detachment from the world to which right-wing populist parties tend to speak by promoting strong links to a charismatic leader and a strong sense of a “we”, the people, against “them” the elites and the non-natives (Betz &amp; Oswald 2022).<br/>While we can rather easily understand the rise of right-wing populism as a consequence of acceleration and alienation, a rather intriguing question is whether right-wing populist parties tend to reinforce acceleration and alienation when they get access to power. If we understand “populist governance” as the way in which these parties tend to govern when they get access to political decision-making (Muno &amp; Pfeiffer 2022), the question is whether this style of politics is not only a consequence of a less resonant society but also can become one of the causes of the loss of resonance.<br/>Many civil society organizations in liberal democracy are entrusted with the role of contributing to resonance by strengthening social ties, participating in the public debate, promoting the rights of societal groups and developing trust (cf. Arato &amp; Cohen 2022). The view of the representatives of these “resonance chambers” to paraphrase the musical metaphor of Rosa is important for understanding populist governance’s contribution to acceleration and alienation and in continuation loss of resonance in today’s state-civil society relations.<br/>With this paper we want not only to assess whether populist governance is driving acceleration and alienation but also to understand how. To do so we analyze the way in which established civil society organizations in Sweden perceive reforms implemented by the government. The study has been carried out in 2025 when the Swedish government was influenced by the Sweden Democrats, a right-wing populist party. We also complement the interview data by exploring the style of communication of government and civil society in the public debate through traditional and social media data.<br/><br/>References<br/>Arato, A. &amp; Cohen, J.L. (2022). Populism and civil society: the challenge to constitutional democracy. New York: Oxford University Press.<br/>Betz, H-G &amp; Johnson, C. (2004) Against the current—stemming the tide: the nostalgic ideology of the contemporary radical populist right, Journal of Political Ideologies, 9:3, 311-327, DOI: 10.1080/1356931042000263546<br/>Betz, HG., Oswald, M. (2022). Emotional Mobilization: The Affective Underpinnings of Right-Wing Populist Party Support. In: Oswald, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Populism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80803-7_7 <br/>Muno, W., &amp; Pfeiffer, C. (2022). Populism in power—A comparative analysis of populist governance. International Area Studies Review, 25(4), 261–279. https://doi.org/10.1177/22338659221120067<br/>Rosa, H. (2019). Resonance: a sociology of our relationship to the world. Cambridge: Polity Press.<br/>Susen, S. (2020) The Resonance of Resonance: Critical Theory as a Sociology of World-Relations?. Int J Polit Cult Soc 33, 309–344. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-019-9313-6<br/>}},
  author       = {{Scaramuzzino, Gabriella and Scaramuzzino, Roberto}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Resonance, civil society and politics – understanding the populist turn in state-civil society relations}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}