scholarly journals State Sovereignty, Associational Interests, and Collective Religious Liberty

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Billingham
Keyword(s):  
Religious Liberty ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Religious Associations ◽  
Democratic Societies

Abstract In Chapter 5 of Liberalism’s Religion, Cécile Laborde considers the freedom and autonomy of religious associations within liberal democratic societies. This paper evaluates her central arguments in that chapter. First, I argue that Laborde makes things too easy for herself in dismissing controversies over the state’s legitimate jurisdictional authority. Second, I argue that Laborde’s view of when associations’ ‘coherence interests’ justify exemptions is too narrow. Third, I consider how we might develop an account of judicial deference to associations’ ‘competence interests’.

scholarly journals Religious Rights and Involuntary State Institutions in Democratic Countries: On Evenhandedness and Ecumenism in Militaries

Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nahshon Perez
Keyword(s):  
Voluntary Associations ◽  
Religious Liberty ◽  
Interference Model ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Religious Associations ◽  
Difficult Challenge ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
State Relations

Militaries present a difficult challenge for scholars interested in navigating the complex demands of religious liberty and religion-state relations. The reason is that the most familiar features of religion-state relations in liberal countries—governmental non-interference and the structure of religious associations as voluntary associations—are incompatible with the structure of militaries as involuntary organizations that are nonetheless highly important institutions in even liberal-democratic countries. How should scholars accustomed to the liberal framework going back to Locke, hence, theorize the desirable religious-institutional state of affairs within involuntary institutions such as militaries? As the governmental non-interference model is inadequate, the argument to be presented here is that the involuntary nature of militaries presents the liberal-minded theorist, with unusual dilemmas, and hence would make two models most adequate for a religious-institutional state of affairs within militaries: evenhandedness (or multiple establishments) and ecumenism, a somewhat unusual category.

Deterrence and Democracy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Falkenrath
Keyword(s):  
War On Terror ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Global War On Terror ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Us ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Global War ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
The Given

This chapter examines strategy and deterrence and traces the shift from deterrence by ‘punishment’ to deterrence by ‘denial’ in Washington’s conduct of the Global War on Terror. The former rested on an assumption that the consequences of an action would serve as deterrents. The latter may carry messages of possible consequences, but these are delivered by taking action that removes the capabilities available to opponents – in the given context, the Islamist terrorists challenging the US. Both approaches rest on credibility, but are more complex in the realm of counter-terrorism, where the US authorities have no obvious ‘return to sender’ address and threats to punish have questionable credibility. In this context, denial offers a more realistic way of preventing terrorist attacks. Yet, the advanced means available to the US are deeply ethically problematic in liberal democratic societies. However, there would likely be even bigger questions if governments failed to act.

USTAVNI IDENTITET I VIDOVDANSKI USTAV

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladan Petrov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
The Core ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
National Question ◽  
Insurmountable Obstacle ◽  
Constitutional Identity

With this paper the author completes his analysis of the reference historical constitutions and its influence on the constitutional identity of modern Serbia. Reffering to the effects of constitutional identity "outside" (preservation of state sovereignty) and "inside" (the "core" of the constitution), the author analyzes the functional failures and substantive controversies of the Vidovdan Constitution. Inconsistent normative solutions of this constitution, a deep socio-political crisis and an unresolved national question in the newly created state were an insurmountable obstacle to building the national constitutional identity. However, the symbolism of the date of adoption of the Constitution and the fact that, at least formally, it was the last classical constitution of the liberal-democratic type until the 1990s and the entry into force of the 1990 Serbian Constitution, make the Vidovdan Constitution a reference text for studying the constitutional identity of modern Serbia.

scholarly journals Security and democratic equality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Milstein
Keyword(s):  
Civil Liberty ◽  
Terrorist Attacks ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Democratic Community ◽  
Police Powers ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic Equality ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Fear Mongering ◽  
American Cities

Abstract After a recent spate of terrorist attacks in European and American cities, liberal democracies are reintroducing emergency securitarian measures (ESMs) that curtail rights and/or expand police powers. Political theorists who study ESMs are familiar with how such measures become instruments of discrimination and abuse, but the fundamental conflict ESMs pose for not just civil liberty but also democratic equality still remains insufficiently explored. Such phenomena are usually explained as a function of public panic or fear-mongering in times of crisis, but I show that the tension between security and equality is in fact much deeper and more general. It follows a different logic than the more familiar tension between security and liberty, and it concerns not just the rule of law in protecting liberty but also the role of law in integrating new or previously subjected groups into a democratic community. As liberal-democratic societies become increasingly diverse and multicultural in the present era of mass immigration and global interconnectedness, this tension between security and equality is likely to become more pronounced.

scholarly journals Russian Cyber Information Warfare: International Distribution and Domestic Control

MCU Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-127
Author(s):  
Lev Topor ◽  
Alexander Tabachnik
Keyword(s):  
Information Warfare ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Informational Influence ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Foreign Influence ◽  
International Distribution ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Hearts And Minds

Cyber information warfare (IW) is a double-edged sword. States use IW to shape the hearts and minds of foreign societies and policy makers. However, states are also prone to foreign influence through IW. This assumption applies mainly to liberal democratic societies. The question examined in this article is how Russia uses IW on other countries but protects itself from the same activities. The authors’ main argument is that while Russia executes influence operations and IW in cyberspace, it strives for uncompromising control over its domestic cyberspace, thus restricting undesirable informational influence over its population.

Liberalism, Terrorism and the Politics of Fear

Politics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 200-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Sparks
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
The Political ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Politics Of Fear ◽  
Democratic Societies ◽  
Political Health ◽  
The Impact

This article considers the impact of terror and fear on the political health of liberal democratic societies. It examines the strategic use of terror to produce a politics of fear through an exploration of current Western reactions to terrorism. The argument is developed through a presentation of a three-part map of the politics of fear constituted by the instigation of fear, the (attempted) eradication of fear and the management of fear. Central to this presentation is an analysis of the destabilising effects the introduction of terror has on civil society and government, and of the effective ways of responding to it. Running through the presentation is an analysis of the constitution of terror and fear, their relationship to each other and to the general insecurities which beset liberal democracies.

Putting Faith into Action

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Braunstein
Keyword(s):  
Religious Liberty ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Religious Values ◽  
Active Citizenship ◽  
Proper Role ◽  
Public Role ◽  
Religious Others ◽  
Democratic Societies

Chapter 4 demonstrates that Interfaith and the Patriots developed different ways of enacting active citizenship in the course of their work together, and specifically their efforts to put their faith in action. Although both groups asserted that there was a public role for religion in diverse and pluralistic democratic societies, they differed in their understandings of how this should work in practice. Interfaith’s efforts to put their faith in action were driven primarily by concerns about religious inclusion, while the Patriots were driven primarily by concerns about religious liberty. Participants in the groups thus emphasized subtly different religious values, developed different ways of engaging with religious others, and engaged in different kinds of religious (and civil religious) practices. The chapter concludes by tracing the groups’ choices about how to put their faith in action to differences in their democratic imaginaries—their ways of understanding how democracy works and the proper role of active citizens in it.

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