Politics of Religion in Liberal Democracies

The secularization thesis argues that as societies modernize religion becomes a less important facet of life. However, the evidence for a decline in religion's contemporary political salience is extremely equivocal. Indeed, multiple indicators suggest religious belief and belonging are currently experiencing a political resurgence across the globe, and even among the developed countries of the world partisan fault lines often appear to be drawn along religious dimensions. Why might this be the case today, when by the middle of the twentieth century many social scientists were convinced that the influence of faith over the public square would fade into obscurity and irrelevance? This course begins by examining the broad contours of the role religion has played in shaping political processes and how they have changed (or not) in recent decades, then applies these insights to analyze religion's present-day influence on political realities in the United States (frequently considered exceptional in its religiosity) and Europe (widely held to be a secularized continent). Our purpose in doing so is to assess the degree to which religion affects public life in comparative context. The course concludes by considering what the implications are for democratic governance when religion stakes an overtly political claim. Students are provided with the tools to think critically about religion's role in politics and the tensions accompanying it in liberal, pluralistic societies.