Organizations function as the central generators of complexity in modern society by regulating and constantly increasing the opportunities for simultaneous action. The paper conceives populism as a socially widespread form of criticism of this organized complexity and systematically differentiates it from fundamentalisms and conspiracy theories as important complexity reducing interpretations of modernity. The structural logic of organizations and their role in society is analyzed in relation to society’s demands for individual participation. The educational potentials of participatory organizational structures are discussed in view of the fact that this mode of systematically generated complexity exposes itself to populist criticism.