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Discursive Regimes of Democratic Decline

Religio-Ethnonationalism and the Production of Authoritarian Power

Discursive Regimes of Democratic Decline cover

Discursive Regimes of Democratic Decline

Religio-Ethnonationalism and the Production of Authoritarian Power

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Pre-order. Available 12 Nov 2026
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Description

An international group of esteemed scholars examines how religio-ethnonationalist power is communicatively produced, normalized, and resisted through discourse.

This edited volume moves beyond conceptions of democratic decline as a purely institutional or electoral phenomenon to advance our understanding of how religion, nationalism, and media power intersect in struggles over democracy. Foregrounding the communicative processes through which affective narratives of exclusion, tradition, and morality are mobilized to legitimate authoritarian power, contributors demonstrate how discourse is simultaneously leveraged as both a mechanism of domination and a site of contestation as it shapes memory, identity, citizenship, and political belonging.

Engaging interdisciplinary conversations across global contexts including North Macedonia, Malaysia, Nigeria, and the United States, contributors highlight not only how discursive tactics of amnesia, amnesty, and cleansing are utilized to sustain religio-ethnonationalist hierarchies but also how discursive resistance can be embraced to reveal the uneven conditions from which resistance emerges. By centering communication as a site of democratic struggle, this volume offers a conceptual framework for identifying how democratic backsliding is (re)produced and challenged, ultimately emphasizing the ethical and political stakes of memory, identity, and power in shaping the future of democracy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Foreword
Priya Kapoor (Portland State University, USA)

Introduction: Discursive Regimes in the Age of Religio-Ethnonationalisms, Authoritarianisms, and Resistance
Victoria A. Newsom (Olympic College in Bremerton, USA), Lara Martin Lengel (Bowling Green State University, USA), and Desiree Montenegro (Palo Verde College, USA)

Section I: Discursive Amnesia and Religio-Ethnonationalisms
1. Theorizing Discursive Amnesia and Religio-Ethnonationalisms
Lara Martin Lengel (Bowling Green State University, USA), Victoria A. Newsom (Olympic College in Bremerton, USA), and Desiree A. Montenegro (Palo Verde College, USA)
2. Contested Histories and Ethno-Nationalism: Colonial Knowledge, Historical Mythmaking, and the Rise of Hindutva in India
Jyoti Mohan (University of Maryland, USA)
3. Invoking an Unhealed Past: Trauma, Memory and Biafra Resurgence, 1999–2023
Nnaemeka Enemchukwu (Southern Illinois University, USA) and Ngozika Obi-Ani (University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria)
4. Faith, Nation, and Nature: Religious Environmentalism and the Politics of Belonging in the Global South
Jisha Jacob (Bowling Green State University, USA), Julia Asamoa (University of Miami, USA), and Falilatu Saaka (Bowling Green State University, USA)

Section II: Discursive Amnesty in Response to Religio-Ethnonationalisms
5. Theorizing Discursive Amnesty and Religio-Ethnonationalisms
Desiree A. Montenegro (Palo Verde College, USA), Lara Martin Lengel (Bowling Green State University, USA), and Victoria A. Newsom (Olympic College in Bremerton, USA)
6. Discursive Amnesia, Discursive Amnesty, Religio-Ethnonationalism, and Imperialistic Missions
Leela Mogadam (University of Missouri, USA)
7. “We Need to Pray for Our Country”: Virtue Signalling and Christian Nationalist Sympathy in White Evangelical Culture
Mark Ward Sr. (Texas A&M University-Victoria, USA)
8. Discursive Amnesty and the Performance of Democracy in North Macedonia
Linda Ziberi, Artan Limani (both RIT Kosovo, Pristina, Kosovo), and Adora Limani (Brown University, USA)

Section III: Discursive Cleansing as Religio-Ethnonationalism
9. Theorizing Discursive Cleansing and Religio-Ethnonationalisms
Victoria A. Newsom (Olympic College in Bremerton, USA), Desiree A. Montenegro (Palo Verde College, USA), and Lara Martin Lengel (Bowling Green State University, USA)
10. The Rise of Antisemitism and Extremist Political Ideology
Stacy Gallin (Emory University, USA)
11. The Pedagogy of Forgetting: How Christian Nationalist Curricula Produces Discursive Cleansing
Marianne Vanderbeke (Bowling Green State University, USA)
12. Contextual Democracy Beyond Binary Opposites: Dialogical Islam and the Post-Essentialist Turn
Mohsen Abbaszadeh Marzbali (University of Mazandaran, Iran)

Section IV: Discursive Resistance to Religio-Ethnonationalisms
13: Theorizing Discursive Resistance to Religio-Ethnonationalisms
Desiree A. Montenegro (Palo Verde College, USA), Victoria A. Newsom (Olympic College in Bremerton, USA), and Lara Martin Lengel (Bowling Green State University, USA)
14. Creating a Shared Identity: Civil Society Resistance to Cypriot Ethnonationalism
Mark Barrow (University of Cambridge, UK)
15. Yogic Resistance: Swami Vivekananda and the Rhetoric of Transcendence
Candice L. Ruh and Leslie J. Harris (both University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA)
16. Ethno-Religious Nationalism: Advancing or Impeding Women's Rights in Malaysia?
(Alicia Lee, Independent Scholar, USA)
17. Neo-Nazi Celebration and Fascist Critique: Radical Religio-Ethnonationalism and Resistance in Balkan Rock
Christian Vukasovich (University of Southern Maine, USA)

Conclusion: Identity, Resistance, and Democratization in the Age of Ethnonationalism
Lara Martin Lengel (Bowling Green State University, USA), Desiree A. Montenegro (Palo Verde College, USA), and Victoria A. Newsom (Olympic College in Bremerton, USA)

Index
About the Contributors

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 12 Nov 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Pages 336
ISBN 9781666944549
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions 229 x 152 mm
Series Conflict, Culture, Communication
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Anthology Editor

Lara Martin Lengel

Lara Martin Lengel is Professor of Communication a…

Anthology Editor

Victoria A. Newsom

Victoria A. Newsom is Professor of Communication S…

Anthology Editor

Desiree A. Montenegro

Desiree A. Montenegro is Associate Professor of Co…

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