Politics and Religion in the Modern World

George Moyser

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• eBook ISBN: 9781134975341
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Despite the commonly held Western view that secularisation has taken religion out of the political sphere, the relationship between religion and politics is at the heart of many of the critical issues of our time. The role of the church in nationalist movements in Eastern Europe, and the influence of Islam on Middle Eastern politics are two clear examples. Politics and Religion in the Modern World sets out to examine what makes religion and politics such a potent combination in countries around the world. It is an important analysis of the relationship between religion and politics, which will be recommended reading for students of political science, religious studies, and sociology.

Chapter One
Politics and religion in the modern world: an overview

George Moyser

INTRODUCTION

It is very difficult in the modern world to ignore the presence of religion in public affairs. Virtually on a daily basis, the media provide instances demonstrating that the people, institutions, and ideas that make up the religious sphere have a continuing and important relevance to the political realm. A glance at the morning newspaper as I write is as good an illustration as any.¹ In it there is a story from Britain concerning a broadcasting bill going through one of the legislative stages on the way to becoming an Act of Parliament—the law of the land. The focus of the story is about the problems of drawing up new rules restricting access to television by religious institutions, rules that have caused ‘a great deal of concern among Christians’, according to a campaigner for religious programming. Another, from the Swiss sub-canton of Appenzell Inner-Rhoden, relates how male voters meeting in the annual Landsgemeinde, or town meeting, of this strongly Roman Catholic area had refused for the third time to give women the vote in local affairs. There is also a report from Harare, Zimbabwe, in which an Anglican priest, ‘prominent in the ranks of anti-apartheid activists and a member of the African National Congress’ was injured by a booby-trapped parcel, allegedly sent by right-wing political elements from South Africa. Perhaps most noteworthy of all is an article about reforms in Albania, famous for its attempt to eliminate systematically all trace of religion from its society. In this article, mention is made of a new generation of younger technocrats described as supporters of religion, and unwilling ‘even in public, to state the official line that the Albanian people were “never religious”’.

These momentary examples could be extended almost indefinitely to others, both great and small. The role of the Christian Churches in legislative controversies over abortion; the rapprochement between the Kremlin and the Vatican; and the more familiar events in the Middle East where religion, in the shape of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is a significant factor in the domestic and international politics of the entire region.

What they demonstrate, unequivocally, is that religion and politics have a lot to do with each other: they interact in a number of important but complex ways. Whether it is at the local, national or international level; whether it involves ordinary citizens, activists or major leaders; whether it concerns legislative institutions, pressure groups or competing political parties and ideologies; whether it is the First World of liberal democracy, the Second World of state socialism, the Third World of developing countries or the Fourth World of abject poverty, religion and politics relate.

This ongoing reality is, therefore, the basic motivation for this book. The view is taken, in other words, that ‘secularization’, or ‘modernization’, have not marginalized religion in the modern world—at least not to the extent that it ceases to have much relevance to politics, or politics to religion. Clearly, vast changes in the relationship have taken place even over the last few decades, but those changes have by no means sundered the connections.

It is, indeed, in that context that the second part of the title of the book ‘in the modern world’, has been cautiously added. This has narrowed the focus to relatively recent times and so given each contributor scope to provide greater detail about issues and events in given contemporary relationships between religion and politics than would otherwise have been possible. At the same time, it allows them room to indicate the dynamics of those issues and events and, not least, to set them in a broader historical context. Those dynamics and that context are always an essential part of understanding the whole.

To assist in that understanding, this introductory chapter sets out some general considerations which might be used to compare, contrast, and derive significance from the various case studies. To that end, we must turn first to basic definitional questions, for it is from definitions that clear, analytic understanding must proceed.

THE BASIC ELEMENTS

Politics

What is politics? A simple question, but one difficult to answer in a precise way. Nevertheless, if we are to begin to appreciate the various elements that make up the relationship between religion and politics, some answers, however imperfect, must be given.

In that spirit, one encyclopedia’s definition is as good a start as any: ‘a process whereby a group of people, whose opinions or interests are initially divergent, reach collective decisions which are generally regarded as binding on the group, and enforced as common policy.’² From this, we can derive a number of important elements and so flesh out what the realm of ‘the political’ is that ‘religion’ might engage.

First, politics is a process, a complex set of activities that form part of a ‘group of people’s’ shared existence. The purpose of those activities is, as noted in the definition, essentially the making of collective decisions—the exercise of power. Our particular focus, therefore, is with the interconnections that exist between the religious life of the group and any or all of those activities, always bearing in mind that they take place within a broader social, cultural, economic and geographical context defined by the character of the group. But what ‘group of people’ are we talking about here? In principle, one could be speaking of a wide spectrum ranging from small primary groups such as family units, through to the entire human race. All to a greater or lesser degree have a corporate life, containing individuals to some degree divergent in opinion or interest. All, therefore, have formal or informal ‘political’ processes whereby collective decisions are made.

Hence, we might, indeed be interested in how ‘religion’ affects family decision-making, or the ‘politics’ of the workplace, or other groups of people. Indeed, one particular set of groups is that defined by religious membership. And so we might well ask how these groups formulate collective decisions. We might then also ask how those patterns impinge upon the way those groups engage in political processes outside the group. Studies have in fact been done on this, showing that such internal political practices do indeed affect the manner of external engagements. They also show that internal power arrangements tend to reflect patterns in the secular political world. ³ All of which serves to emphasize that the relationship between religion and politics is not a simple one; there are many complex features that must be taken into account.

Normally, however, ‘politics’ is reserved for decision-making processes among large spatial groups, collectivities of people that inhabit a given local, regional or, above all, national territory. Numerous studies have focused on the contribution of religion at each of these levels. At the small end of the spectrum, they include reports of the way religion intersects with the political processes of particular villages or cities—what some call ‘communal politics’.⁴ They also include many more that look at provinces or regions; many are very large and significant entities yet sufficiently distinctive to be an important focus of religious and political life in their own right.⁵ But most common, perhaps, are ‘country studies’ of the relationship between religion and politics in sovereign nation-states.

In part, this is because of the nature of a ‘nation’, defined in one dictionary as follows:

a nation is a body of people who see part at least of their identity in terms of a single communal identity with some considerable historical continuity of union, with major elements of common culture, and with a sense of geographical location at least for a good part of those who make up the nation.⁶

Hence, to the extent that religion is a part of that communal identity, that common culture, that historical continuity, so religion and ‘nation’ become closely entangled: religion can be a means through which a nation expresses its identity and aspirations.⁷

However, perhaps the key interest in nation-states lies in their sovereignty—their capacity, theoretically at least, to make binding and enforceable collective decisions for generally large aggregates of people. The world has become dominated by such entities, as is attested by the collapse of empires and the ending of colonialist regimes. Though in some regions, nation-states are initiating the creation of super-states, as yet power lies substantially at the national level. Thus it is national politics which in a sense counts the most and hence it is relationships between that politics and the religious sphere which generate major attention. This book, organized substantially in terms of national case studies, is testament to this.

At the same time, significant collectivities exist at the international level where, in consequence, interesting linkages with religion can be examined. Here we are dealing with such topics as the contribution of religious agencies as actors in international relations. We are also reminded at this level that religion expressed in the domestic political arena may spill over into cross-border disputes and other types of international difficulties.⁸

The second key element in a definition of politics besides the character of the collectivity is the process of decision-making itself. As noted, this entails the reconciliation of divergent opinions and interests in mechanisms of conflict resolution. How this is achieved varies considerably. In some contexts, it is a matter of the direct use of violence, coercion and terror. In others, methods based on historical tradition and custom may prevail. In yet others, a conscious attempt is made to devise a written formula, or constitution, that lays down clear legal rules whereby power is wielded.

The formal institutions at the heart of this process constitute ‘the state’, ‘the set-up of authoritative and legitimately powerful roles by which we are finally controlled, ordered, and organized’.⁹ It includes the agencies that make up the national political executive (‘the government’ narrowly construed), the legislative and judicial organs, and an administrative or bureaucratic apparatus (‘the civil service’). The state also includes the means whereby its decisions are ultimately enforced—the coercive apparatus of police, militia, and army. Authoritative institutions at the sub-national level function analogously as ‘the local state’, although their power is subordinated to a greater or lesser degree to the national level. Similarly, the term should sometimes perhaps be stretched to include formally authoritative supranational institutions where there has been a significant transfer of decision-making from the national level. The European Community is a case in point.

It is because of the centrality of these state institutions to the political process that their relationship with religion has received close scrutiny. Indeed, ‘church and state’ was, for a long time, taken to be what ‘religion and politics’ was essentially all about. Connections between religion and the constitution form one important aspect. In the United States, for example, as in other countries, the relationship between religion and the national constitution has been an important focus of study.¹⁰ The US constitution lays out the basic legal framework within which state institutions operate. In doing so, it also reflects important symbolic elements and ideological preferences. This in turn raises the question of the role accorded to religious bodies in the constitution, and the extent to which its symbols and values have a religious provenance. Similar considerations can also be raised in every other national context.

Constitutional studies, particularly in the United States, also draw into view the relationship between religion and the judiciary, which in that country has a major responsibility for deciding constitutional issues.¹¹ Beyond that, such a focus raises the whole question of the contribution of religion to understandings of the law. In many Islamic countries, for example, the contribution is very explicit.¹²

The other state institutions also may have important links with the religious sphere. Studies have looked at the religious motivations of legislators, for example, as well as their treatment of a wide range of issues that relate specifically and directly to religion.¹³ It is true, of course, that religious outlooks may have a bearing on any or all issues on a given legislative agenda. But the impact of religion is perhaps most visible in law-making within such areas as education, the family, sexuality, and capital punishment. The same can be said of the other central apparatus of the state—the political executive of presidents and prime ministers, cabinets and councils of ministers.

Politics, however, is much more than the exercise of power within the state apparatus. Indeed, one of the problems of defining ‘the state’ lies precisely in the fact that power and influence over decisions is often diffused well beyond these officially authoritative institutions. As part of the play of power, agencies and individuals outside the state seek to affect the nature of the collective decisions—public policies—as they are made. Indeed, some achieve a status that can rival and even overshadow officially-designated institutions. This necessarily extends the scope and complexity of the relationship between religion and politics. It is indeed about far more than ‘church and state’.

In recognition of the broader political reality, political scientists tend to speak as much, if not more, about ‘the polity’ or ‘the political system’ rather than ‘the state’. As David Easton, and others, have conceived the term, it includes all those who generate ‘inputs’—demands, resources and support—as well as the authorities who ‘allocate’, that is make and implement decisions.¹⁴ For pres...

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT PAGE
• LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
• CONTRIBUTORS
• PREFACE
• CHAPTER ONE: POLITICS AND RELIGION IN THE MODERN WORLD: AN OVERVIEW
• CHAPTER 2: POLITICS AND RELIGION IN WESTERN EUROPE
• CHAPTER 3: POLITICS AND RELIGION IN EASTERN EUROPE AND THE SOVIET UNION
• CHAPTER 4: THE ISLAMIC WORLD: EGYPT AND IRAN
• CHAPTER 5: POLITICS AND RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA
• CHAPTER 6: POLITICS AND RELIGION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
• CHAPTER 7: POLITICS AND RELIGION IN LATIN AMERICA
• CHAPTER 8: POLITICS AND RELIGION IN CENTRAL AMERICA: A CASE STUDY OF EL SALVADOR
• CHAPTER 9: SOCIAL CHANGE AND POLITICAL RESPONSE: THE SILENT RELIGIOUS CLEAVAGE IN NORTH AMERICA