Christian Nation in Zambia: from Proclamation to Reset

December 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the proclamation of Zambia a Christian nation. The leader of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) party who came to power in 1991, a convinced Christian F. Chiluba, declared Zambia a Christian nation, arguing that Christianity was then professed by more than 70% of the population and that this was supposed to help the country to get rid of corruption and contribute to its prosperity. The article analyzes the reasons of decision to declare Zambia a Christian nation. It is emphasized that political goals prevailed then over religious ones, since the issue of preserving and strengthening power was high on the political agenda of the ruling MMD party. The economic background is also touched upon: as a pragmatic president Chiluba pursued a policy of economic liberalization and counted on financial assistance from Western countries and international donors. The following Christian presidents L. Mwanawasa, R. Banda and M. Sata used limited Christian rhetoric, but they collaborated with the Church with varying degrees of intensity. At the same time, the provision on the Christian nation in the Constitution was preserved. It is noted that the role of the religious factor in politics increased in the early 2010s. The politicization of religion, primarily Christianity, became apparent during the struggle for power led by the leader of the opposition Patriotic Front party Michael Sata, who was supported by some religious leaders. After Edgar Lungu (party Patriotic Front) came to power in 2015, Zambia was re-proclaimed a Christian nation, which was enshrined in the new edition of the 2016 constitution. At the same time, the country began the political rehabilitation of F. Chiluba, who, after leaving the presidency in 2001, was persecuted for corruption. The campaigns for the 2015 presidential elections and for the 2016 general elections have shown the relevance of the discourse on religion and politics in the political process, primarily in its aspect of the multiple relationships between religion, ethnicity and politics. The article shows that the issue of the proclamation of Zambia a Christian nation remains relevant in Zambian society and among African and Western theologians and researchers whose judgments and conclusions are often polar opposite. The author notes that the realities of the socio-political, socio-economic and cultural life in Zambia do not yet indicate the existence of the declared Christian nation. The high level of corruption, poverty, limited rights of some groups of the population do not correspond to Christian ideals and values and have become serious challenges for the modern Zambian society. The article emphasizes that, unlike a number of other countries south of the Sahara, where competition between Christianity and Islam has intensified in recent years, leading, among other things, to bloody conflicts, Zambia survives this conflict along the axis of competition between different directions of Christianity. The ruling PF’s manifesto for the August 2021 general election contains Christian rhetoric. The document states the PF’s commitment to partnership with the Church, which it recognizes as a key partner in the conversion of Zambians into a Christian nation. Further peaceful development of Zambia depends on a balanced internal policy of the authorities aimed at solving complex socio-economic problems in cooperation with representatives of all religions and their confessions.

From Inter-Racial Solidarity to Action: Minority Linked Fate and African American, Latina/o, and Asian American Political Participation

Recent literature in race, ethnicity, and politics has assessed how minority linked fate, defined as “the idea that ethnoracial minorities might share a sense of commonality that extends beyond their particular ethnoracial group to other ethnoracial groups (Gershon et al., in Politics Groups Identities 7(3):642–653, 2019),” shapes attitudes toward descriptive representation and support for coalition building. However, scholarship has yet to examine the influence of minority linked fate on political participation. We argue that similar to those who view the interests of co-ethnics as a proxy for their individual interests, Latina/os, Asian Americans, and African Americans who express linked fate with a more expansive minority community are more likely to take political action. This political participation results from senses of obligation to and solidarity with other racial minorities outside of their own. Results from the 2016 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey show that controlling for conventional measures of linked fate, minority linked fate is associated primarily with more system-challenging modes of political activity for Latina/os, Asian Americans, and African Americans. We conclude by positioning minority linked fate as a complementary heuristic to traditional notions of intra-racial linked fate and note how shared inter-racial linked fate informs our understanding of recent political activism among people of color.

Ethnicity, Exclusion, and Exams: Education Policy and Politics in Burundi from the Independent Republics to the Civil War (1966–1993)

Education policy can embed ethnic inequalities in a country. Education in Burundi, with its historically exclusive political institutions and education, represents an important case for understanding these interactions. In this article, I interview twelve Burundians about how they experienced and perceived ethnicity and politics in their schooling from 1966 to 1993. I argue that education contributed to tangible and perceived social hierarchies based on ethnic inequalities. I show that this exclusion reflected both overt and covert policy goals, through proxies used to identify ethnicity in schools and through the exclusive nature of national exams at the time, which promoted members of the Tutsi minority at the expense of the majority Hutus. This study has implications for understanding how perceptions of inequality in education manifest as grievances against the state. It sheds light on the importance of understanding covert education policy as a potential mechanism for generating exclusion and contributing to conflict.

Crises, Race, Acknowledgement: The Centrality of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics to the Future of Political Science

The United States, and the world, is in the grips of a coronavirus pandemic, and in the United States, we are facing a crisis of faith in the fairness of our political institutions, particularly the ability of Black Americans to live without the fear of dying at the hands of the police for going about their daily lives. Race has been and continues to be intertwined with American government and politics, in general, and how the United States approaches crises, in particular. Racial minority groups have been scapegoats for the failings of American policy makers to deal with numerous crises historically and at present. Race and racism are also at the foundation of the origins of American political science. The racism at the roots of our discipline’s founding have created a blindness to the significance and importance of the field of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (REP) to the study of politics, democracy, and how American society reacts during a crisis. Our discipline is also at an inflection point that requires us to acknowledge its racist origins, confront its continued influence on the present, and finally to move forward in recognizing the importance of REP to the health and future of the discipline.

Justice: The Racial Motive We All Have and Need

This essay posits that justice is the core value epitomizing our moment. Justice is violated when positive outcomes are undeserved, and the felt sense of injustice motivates a need for retribution. Because politics involves allocation (distribution and redistribution), deservingness is a core appraisal of “who gets what” and therefore justice is fundamental for politics. This is especially germane to race, ethnicity, and politics scholars. I present a few core tenets of justice theory, and argue that political science can take advantage of the moment to engage the concept of justice; especially as it relates to the study of racial attitudes and the identification of racial enablers—those ostensible non-racists who facilitate the status quo. Summarily, I propose that justice can unify debates over prejudice and politics, and advance our scholarly understanding of how well-intentioned people—regardless of their identities, or ideological or partisan labels—can facilitate racism, racial inequality, and injustice.

Religious factor in the political process in Zambia: mutual influence of religion and politics

The article examines the problem of growing politicization in some religious confessions, primarily Christianity, in the process of democratization that began in Zambia in the early 1990s. Zambia is one of the African countries whose religious leaders have played a prominent role in social life throughout their history. It is especially noted that the proclamation of Zambia a Christian nation in 1991 by President Frederick Chiluba contributed greatly to the strengthening of mutual influence between politics and religion. In modern Zambia religious organizations adhere generally to neutrality, the liberal part of all confessional groups seeing their task in solving primary social problems. In recent decades there have been no pronounced ethnic and religious contradictions in the country which could contribute to an emergence of open bloody conflicts threatening internal security and stability. The article shows that with Edgar Lungu’s (Patriotic Front, PF) coming to power in 2015, Zambia was proclaimed a Christian nation again, which was enshrined in the new edition of its Constitution. The campaigns for presidential elections in 2015 and for general elec-tions in 2016 have shown that “religion-politics” discourse has become relevant in the political process, regarding primarily multiple rela-tionships between religion, ethnicity and politics. The country is on the eve of new general elections due in August 2021. In a difficult economic situation, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemics, Zambian government and Church officials are calling on voters to ensure peaceful electoral process.

The Continuing Dilemma of Race and Class in the Study of American Political Behavior

This article traces the development of the study of race and class in American political behavior. It starts by challenging the American exceptionalism thesis, particularly its premises regarding the diminutive role of social class and the absence of serious discussions about race. It then critically reviews the conventional scholarship on American political behavior and its reliance on objective indicators of social class as predictors of political preferences and participation. The article also highlights studies that have conceived of class as an important social identity and have thus measured it subjectively. It then discusses the surge of identity studies in the field of race, ethnicity, and politics (REP) and the turn toward an intersectional approach that rarely includes social class. The article ends with a discussion of the handful of studies that do consider the intersections of race and class, and underscores the need for more research of this type to advance our understanding of contemporary American political behavior. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 24 is May 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

(Mis)Calculations, Psychological Mechanisms, and the Future Politics of People of Color

This essay comments on three questions about race, ethnicity, and politics in the contemporary United States—How did we get here? Who are we now? And, where are we going next? I grapple with these questions as a political psychologist steeped in the study of intergroup politics. In this capacity, I will argue that structural (mis)calculations have paved the road toward present intergroup relations, where identity politics reigns supreme. I then discuss America's current racial landscape, arguing that reality is more complex than before, especially as it concerns political relations between Whites and non-Whites. In this regard, I will claim that political psychology holds special insights to generate new knowledge about how (non-)Whites are navigating this changing racial landscape. Finally, I will advocate, strongly, for a greater sense of wonder about the multiplicity of identities that people of color hold. In particular, I will claim that by relaxing our assumption that race is the main identity that matters to people of color, we stand to better appreciate just how adaptive non-Whites are to their political surroundings, leading us toward new insights about the origins and nature of mass political engagement and involvement.