Explaining Religious Party Strength

Explaining Religious Party Strength PDF Author: Mário Rebelo
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000820351
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
Explaining Religious Party Strength explores why religious political parties are electorally successful in some countries but not in others. Drawing on insights from political science and sociology, this book argues that religious parties are typically formed for defensive reasons, reacting against state-builders’ attempts to secularize public services such as education, welfare, and healthcare. Building on these findings, the author argues that the strength of religious parties is determined by the infrastructural power of the state. Weak states that fail to provide adequate public services open up space for religious communities to build a dense network of private schools, hospitals, and charities, which translates into votes for religious political parties. By contrast, strong states that provide efficient public services squeeze out private welfare providers, undermining the electoral strength of religious political parties. The author tests this theory through statistical analysis, using a new dataset on all religious parties which have participated in national parliamentary elections between 1800 and 2015. He includes comparative historical analyses of Roman Catholic political parties in France and Italy and Sunni Islamic political parties in Egypt, Turkey, and Albania. This book will interest students and scholars of religion and politics, specifically those interested in party formation, voting, and political activism, as well as policymakers.

Explaining Religious Party Strength

Explaining Religious Party Strength PDF Author: Mário Rebelo
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000820351
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Get Book

Book Description
Explaining Religious Party Strength explores why religious political parties are electorally successful in some countries but not in others. Drawing on insights from political science and sociology, this book argues that religious parties are typically formed for defensive reasons, reacting against state-builders’ attempts to secularize public services such as education, welfare, and healthcare. Building on these findings, the author argues that the strength of religious parties is determined by the infrastructural power of the state. Weak states that fail to provide adequate public services open up space for religious communities to build a dense network of private schools, hospitals, and charities, which translates into votes for religious political parties. By contrast, strong states that provide efficient public services squeeze out private welfare providers, undermining the electoral strength of religious political parties. The author tests this theory through statistical analysis, using a new dataset on all religious parties which have participated in national parliamentary elections between 1800 and 2015. He includes comparative historical analyses of Roman Catholic political parties in France and Italy and Sunni Islamic political parties in Egypt, Turkey, and Albania. This book will interest students and scholars of religion and politics, specifically those interested in party formation, voting, and political activism, as well as policymakers.

Political Choice Matters

Political Choice Matters PDF Author: Geoffrey Evans
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019164062X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 480

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Book Description
Political Choice Matters investigates the extent to which class and religion influence party choice in contemporary democracies. Rather than the commonly-assumed process in which a weakening of social boundaries leads to declining social divisions in political preferences, this book's primary message is that the supply of choices by parties influences the extent of such divisions: hence, political choice matters. Combining overtime, cross-national data, and multi-level research designs the authors show how policy and programmatic positions adopted by parties provide voters with choice sets that accentuate or diminish the strength of political cleavages. The book gives central place to the positions of political parties on left-right, economically redistributive and morally conservative versus social liberal dimensions. Evidence on these positions is obtained primarily from the Comparative Manifesto Project, with a chapter dedicated to elaborating and validating the various implementations of this uniquely valuable source of evidence on party positions. The primary empirical focus includes case studies of 11 Western, Southern, and Central European societies as well as 'anglo-democracies' including Britain, USA, Canada, and Australia. These detailed analyses of election studies ranging in some cases from the post-war period until the early part of the 21st century are augmented by a pooled cross-national and overtime analysis of 15 Western democracies using a unique, combined dataset of 188 national surveys. The authors show that although there has been some overtime decline in the strength of association between social class and party choice, this is far smaller than the amount of change in the relationship occurring as a result of party movements on questions of inequality and redistribution. The strength of the religiosity cleavage is also influenced by changes in party positions on moral issues - changes that can be understood as a strategic response to a process of secularization that has weakened the electoral viability of parties deriving support from appeals to religious values.

Exploring Religious Diversity and Covenantal Pluralism in Asia

Exploring Religious Diversity and Covenantal Pluralism in Asia PDF Author: Dennis R. Hoover
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000812820
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
This book examines the growing diversity of religions and worldviews across South & Central Asia, and the factors affecting prospects for 'covenantal pluralism' in these regions. Going beyond banal appeals for mere 'tolerance', the theory of covenantal pluralism calls for a constitutional order of religious freedom and equal treatment combined with a culture of practical religious literacy and everyday virtues of engagement across lines of religious difference. According to the Pew Religious Diversity Index, half of the world’s most religiously diverse countries are in Asia. The presence of deep religious/worldview difference is often seen as a potential threat to socio-political cohesion or even as a source of violent conflict. Yet in Asia (as elsewhere) the degree of this diversity is not consistently associated with socio-political problems. Indeed, while religious difference is implicated in some social challenges, there are also many instances of respectful multi-faith engagement, practical collaboration, and peaceful debate. Volume II offers a pioneering exploration of the prospects for this robust and non-relativistic type of pluralism in South & Central Asia. (Volume I examined East & Southeast Asia.) The chapters in these volumes originally appeared as research articles in a series on covenantal pluralism published by The Review of Faith & International Affairs.

Anti-Gender Mobilizations, Religion and Politics

Anti-Gender Mobilizations, Religion and Politics PDF Author: Massimo Prearo
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040003915
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
This book presents an innovative exploration of the rise of political forces that have coalesced around the anti-gender movement, shaping strategies that advocate novel intersections of religion, politicization of gender and sexuality, and radical and populist rejuvenation of conservative ideologies. Through an extensive examination of activist discourses and mobilizations, the author offers a comprehensive political analysis of anti-gender mobilization, encompassing a multidimensional examination of religious, activist, and political opportunity structures. This study unveils three distinct facets characterizing these emerging (Catholic) movements: their relative autonomy from the Church (extra-ecclesiastical), their divergence from conventional religious frameworks (extra-Catholic), and their party-political alignment within the far-right area. The author proposes a new perspective on this burgeoning Catholic cause, contextualizing it within the transnational dynamics underscored by the existing literature. Particularly noteworthy is the scrutiny of internal reshaping within the Italian political Catholicism realm between the 1990s and the 2000s set against the backdrop of the dissolution of the Christian Democratic Party. Through the lens of the Italian landscape, this study extends its analysis to offer broader insights into the contemporary political uses of religion within democracies, along with contentious issues arising from gender and sexuality debates, transcending the confines of the Italian context. This book holds significant relevance for scholars and students engaged in gender studies, religious studies, social movements, populism, political science, political sociology, political history, and Italian studies.

The Power Worshippers

The Power Worshippers PDF Author: Katherine Stewart
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635573459
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
For readers of Democracy in Chains and Dark Money, a revelatory investigation of the Religious Right's rise to political power. For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America's religious nationalists aren't just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy. Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power. She follows the money that fuels this movement, tracing much of it to a cadre of super-wealthy, ultraconservative donors and family foundations. She shows that today's Christian nationalism is the fruit of a longstanding antidemocratic, reactionary strain of American thought that draws on some of the most troubling episodes in America's past. It forms common cause with a globe-spanning movement that seeks to destroy liberal democracy and replace it with nationalist, theocratic and autocratic forms of government around the world. Religious nationalism is far more organized and better funded than most people realize. It seeks to control all aspects of government and society. Its successes have been stunning, and its influence now extends to every aspect of American life, from the White House to state capitols, from our schools to our hospitals. The Power Worshippers is a brilliantly reported book of warning and a wake-up call. Stewart's probing examination demands that Christian nationalism be taken seriously as a significant threat to the American republic and our democratic freedoms.

Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology

Islam, Liberalism, and Ontology PDF Author: Joseph J. Kaminski
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000372243
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
This book offers comparative ontologies of both Islam and liberalism as discourses more broadly construed. The author argues that, despite recent efforts to speak of overlapping consensuses and discursive congruence, the fundamental categories that constitute "Islam" and "Liberalism" remain very different, and that these differences should be taken seriously. Thus far, no recent scholarly works have explicitly or meticulously broken down where these differences lie. The author rigorously explores questions related to rights, moral epistemologies, the role of religion in the public sphere, and more general approaches to legal discourse, via primary and canonical sources constitutive of both Islam and liberalism. He then goes on to articulate why communitarian modes of thought are better suited for engaging with Islam and contemporary socio-political modes of organization than liberalism is. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of politics and international relations, Islam, liberalism, and communitarianism.

An Introduction to Religion and Politics

An Introduction to Religion and Politics PDF Author: Jonathan Fox
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136206914
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
An Introduction to Religion and Politics offers a comprehensive overview of the many theories of religion and politics, and provides students with an accessible but in-depth account of the most significant debates, issues and methodologies. Fox examines the ways in which religion influences politics, analyses the current key issues and provides a state of the art account of religion and politics, highlighting the diversity in state religion policies around the world. Topics covered include: Secularism and secularization Religious identity Religious worldviews, beliefs, doctrines and theologies Religious legitimacy Religious institutions and mobilization Rational and functional religion Religious fundamentalism Conflict, violence and terror This work combines theoretical analysis with data on the religion policies of 177 governments, showing that while most of the world's government support religion and many restrict it; true neutrality on the issue of religion is extremely rare. Religion is becoming an inescapable issue in politics. This work will be essential reading for all students of religion and politics, and will also be of great interest to those studying related subjects such as comparative politics, international relations and war and conflict studies.

Uncivil Agreement

Uncivil Agreement PDF Author: Lilliana Mason
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022652468X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
The psychology behind political partisanship: “The kind of research that will change not just how you think about the world but how you think about yourself.” —Ezra Klein, Vox Political polarization in America has moved beyond disagreements about matters of policy. For the first time in decades, research has shown that members of both parties hold strongly unfavorable views of their opponents. This is polarization rooted in social identity, and it is growing. The campaign and election of Donald Trump laid bare this fact of the American electorate, its successful rhetoric of “us versus them” tapping into a powerful current of anger and resentment. With Uncivil Agreement, Lilliana Mason looks at the growing social gulf across racial, religious, and cultural lines, which have recently come to divide neatly between the two major political parties. She argues that group identifications have changed the way we think and feel about ourselves and our opponents. Even when Democrats and Republicans can agree on policy outcomes, they tend to view one other with distrust and to work for party victory over all else. Although the polarizing effects of social divisions have simplified our electoral choices and increased political engagement, they have not been a force that is, on balance, helpful for American democracy. Bringing together theory from political science and social psychology, Uncivil Agreement clearly describes this increasingly “social” type of polarization, and adds much to our understanding of contemporary politics.

The Logics of Gender Justice

The Logics of Gender Justice PDF Author: Mala Htun
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110828096X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
When and why do governments promote women's rights? Through comparative analysis of state action in seventy countries from 1975 to 2005, this book shows how different women's rights issues involve different histories, trigger different conflicts, and activate different sets of protagonists. Change on violence against women and workplace equality involves a logic of status politics: feminist movements leverage international norms to contest women's subordination. Family law, abortion, and contraception, which challenge the historical claim of religious groups to regulate kinship and reproduction, conform to a logic of doctrinal politics, which turns on relations between religious groups and the state. Publicly-paid parental leave and child care follow a logic of class politics, in which the strength of Left parties and overall economic conditions are more salient. The book reveals the multiple and complex pathways to gender justice, illuminating the opportunities and obstacles to social change for policymakers, advocates, and others seeking to advance women's rights.

The London Quarterly Review

The London Quarterly Review PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : English literature
Languages : en
Pages : 650

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Book Description