Political Secularism and Democracy in Theory and Practice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fox
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
State Support ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
Practical Politics ◽  
Integrate State

An overwhelming majority of democracies, no matter how the concept of democracy is defined, restrict the religious practices and institutions of minority religions, substantially support religion, and give de jure and de facto preferences to a single religion or a few religions. Since so few democracies meet any standard of political secularism, political secularism is either not essential to liberal democracy or these countries’ status as liberal democracies must be questionable. Political secularism as an ideology is not as influential in the practical politics of democratic states as many believe. An important question is whether political secularism is the best model for democracy or whether the best models are those that integrate state support for religion with checks and balances that protect religious freedom.

scholarly journals What is religious freedom and who has it?

2021 ◽  
pp. 003776862110123
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fox
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Central Element ◽  
Economic Prosperity ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Religion And State

Religious freedom (RF) is important because it is posited to be a central element of liberal democracy and as having multiple additional benefits including increased security and economic prosperity. Yet, it is also a disputed concept and many liberal democracies restrict the freedoms of religious minorities. This study uses the Religion and State (RAS) dataset to examine the extent of RF in 183 countries based on six definitions of RF. The author examines whether religious minorities are restricted in a manner that the majority is not, regulation of the majority religion, and imposition of precepts of the majority religion on a country’s population. He finds that very few countries, including liberal democracies, meet any standard for RF, even when one allows for ‘loose’ standards where some violations of RF are allowed.

Separation of Religion and State in Stable Christian Democracies: Fact or Myth?

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Fox
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Political Concern ◽  
Religion And State ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Role Of Religion

This study compares separation of religion and state (SRAS) as it is conceived in theory with its realization in practice in 40 stable Christian democracies between 1990 and 2008 based on data from the Religion and State Round 2 dataset. There is no agreement in the literature on how SRAS ought to be conceived. Many scholars argue that SRAS is a necessary condition for liberal democracies. The present study examines four models of SRAS found in the literature, and a non-SRAS model that addresses the appropriate role of religion in democracies: secularism-laicism, absolute SRAS, neutral political concern, exclusion of ideals, and acceptable support for religion. The study analyzes three factors: (a) whether the state supports one or some religions more than others; (b) the extent of religious legislation; and (c) restrictions on the religious practices and institutions of religious minorities. The analysis shows that depending on the definition of SRAS used, between zero and eight of the 40 countries practice SRAS. Based on this finding, I conclude that either SRAS is not a necessary condition for liberal democracy or many states commonly considered to be liberal democracies are not.

State-Level Restriction of Religious Freedom and Women’s Rights: A Global Analysis

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 832-853 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Global Analysis ◽  
State Level ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
The Relationship

The literature is divided on the nature of the relationship between state-level restriction of religious freedom and women’s rights, as religious freedom can empower members of marginalized groups or advance gender-discriminatory practices. Employing a time-series cross-sectional analysis of data for two decades from 153 nations, this study shows that the relationship between religious regulation and women’s rights depends on the type of regulation, with regulation of the majority religion improving state-level women’s rights and discriminatory regulation specifically targeting minority religions impairing them. Furthermore, the effect of regulation is moderated by the context. Even relatively small regulatory steps promote women’s rights in patriarchal and non-democratic regimes by weakening the religion-state fusion and patriarchal values. However, in liberal democracies, the beneficial effects of regulation wane or even backfire, as religious institutions may rally around the religion. Consequently, this article advocates a multidimensional view of religious freedom, and warns against viewing secularization as inherently promoting gender equality.

scholarly journals Why do you hate me so much? An exploration of religious freedom from the perspective of African religion(s)

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sibusiso T. Masondo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
The Law ◽  
Indigenous Religions ◽  
South African Constitution ◽  
The Right

The advent of the 1996 constitution and the promotion of freedom of religion gave space to previously discriminated religious traditions to flourish. There have been a number of revivals of aspects of African Traditional Religion. The Bill of Rights guarantees Religious Freedom but tends to limit it to Freedom of belief. People have every right to believe and practice as long as their practice is in line with the law. This paper is a reflection on the difficulties posed by the notion of Religious Freedom as contained in the 1996 South African constitution for practitioners of African Indigenous Religions and other minority religions. In a case that captured the imagination of the legal fraternity, Gareth Prince, a practicing Rastafarian, was prevented from joining the Bar of the Western Cape because of a prior conviction of being caught in possession of dagga, an illegal substance. He argued that he used cannabis as part of his religious observance. Justice Ngcobo, in his judgement dismissing the case, made it very clear that ‘the right to freedom of religion is not absolute’. In other words, religious practices need to fall within the provisions of the law of the land. At the core of our argument is that the intellectual and cultural resources that were mobilised in writing the South African constitution failed to reflect on the religious practices of indigenous people and other minority religions.

Reconciling state promises and practices: Constitutional promises and discrimination against religious minorities

2021 ◽  
pp. 003776862110123
Author(s):  
Roger Finke ◽  
Dane R Mataic
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The State ◽  
Religious Discrimination ◽  
Religious Minorities ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
Independent Judiciary ◽  
Poor Predictor

Research on religious freedom has found a vast chasm between constitutional promises and state practices, with constitutional promises being a poor predictor of the state’s support of religious freedom. This research changes the focus from religious freedom to religious equality. We propose that constitutional promises of religious equality will be associated with less discrimination against minority religions and we explore the relationships governance and the promises of religious equality hold with religious discrimination. We find that promises of religious equality are associated with less discrimination. When exploring the interactions between promises of equality and our governance measures, we find constitutional promises of religious equality largely erase the differences in religious discrimination between countries with and without free elections and an independent judiciary. Yet, the reduced discrimination against minority religions does not suggest that the state removes restrictions on minority religions, only that they are equal with other religions.

Does Liberal Democracy Presuppose a Cultural Nation? Four Arguments

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 495-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARASH ABIZADEH
Keyword(s):  
Social Integration ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Public Culture ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Democratic Deliberation ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Shared Norms

This paper subjects to critical analysis four common arguments in the sociopolitical theory literature supporting the cultural nationalist thesis that liberal democracy is viable only against the background of a single national public culture: the arguments that (1) social integration in a liberal democracy requires shared norms and beliefs (Schnapper); (2) the levels of trust that democratic politics requires can be attained only among conationals (Miller); (3) democratic deliberation requires communicational transparency, possible in turn only within a shared national public culture (Miller, Barry); and (4) the economic viability of specifically industrialized liberal democracies requires a single national culture (Gellner). I argue that all four arguments fail: At best, a shared cultural nation may reduce some of the costs liberal democratic societies must incur; at worst, cultural nationalist policies ironically undermine social integration. The failure of these cultural nationalist arguments clears the way for a normative theory of liberal democracy in multinational and postnational contexts.

scholarly journals Immunizing the Flock: How the Pandemic Court Rewrote Religious Freedom

Laws ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Paul Baumgardner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Religious Freedom ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
The Past ◽  
The U.S

When coronavirus began to descend upon the United States, religious freedom advocates across the country sounded the alarm that citizens’ religious practices and institutions were under threat. Although some of the most extreme arguments championed by these advocates were not validated by our legal system, many were. This article explores the underappreciated gains made by religious freedom advocates before the U.S. Supreme Court over the past year. As a result of the “Pandemic Court”, religious freedom in the United States has been rewritten. This promises to radically change the educational, employment, and health prospects of millions of Americans for the rest of the pandemic and long afterwards.

Formalizing Secularism as a Regime of Restrictions and Protections: The Case of Quebec (Canada) and Geneva (Switzerland)

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 283-302
Author(s):  
Amélie Barras
Keyword(s):  
Religious Practices ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Public Servants ◽  
Minority Religions ◽  
The World ◽  
Regulatory Regimes ◽  
Context Specific

AbstractIn 2019, the province of Quebec and the canton of Geneva passed bills establishing their states as “secular.” While each law is, to a certain extent, context specific, both present noteworthy similarities. First, neutrality (the cornerstone of laïcité) is articulated around two elements: (1) restrictions that affect the religious practices of public servants belonging to minority religions and (2) protections for Christian symbols constructed as “cultural.” The article questions the implications for inclusive citizenship of formalizing regulatory regimes that differentiate between “religion” and “culture.” Second, a comparative lens enables an analysis of how, through whom, and why similar regimes of regulation travel from one area of the world to another. The article argues for the importance of considering transnational influences when analyzing the regulation of religion to better (1) understand why particular models of secularism gain traction and (2) capture power dynamics structuring these processes of traction.

HARMONIZATION OF TRADE AND INDUSTRIAL POLICY AND STATE SUPPORT

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (199) ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
I.F. Bogatyrev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Policy ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Electronic Industry ◽  
State Support ◽  
Military Industrial Complex ◽  
Radio Electronic ◽  
The Status ◽  
Main Activity ◽  
The Military

The purpose of the study is to consider the status of state support, to determine its main trends in Russia, including in the radio-electronic industry, in connection with the harmonization of trade and industrial policy. To achieve the purpose of the study, the main approaches to the concepts of "harmonization", "harmonization of trade and industrial policy" were studied, the place of state support in the structure of the mechanism for harmonization of trade and industrial policy was determined, the problems of state support both in general and specifically in the radio-electronic industry were formulated, the ways of solving these problems were suggested. Within the framework of the study, legislative documents related to state support of the radio-electronic industry are analyzed, its main characteristics are determined. The relevance of state support of enterprises of the military-industrial complex, whose main activity is concentrated on the production of radio electronics, is shown. Possible ways of improving the activities of enterprises of the military-industrial complex are proposed, the use of state support tools of an institutional nature is highlighted. The results of the study have novelty and originality, expand the theory and practice of the issue of harmonization, since they focus on those aspects of it that were not previously considered in detail.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document