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Political Secularism

This document summarizes the research of Jonathan Fox on state religion policies around the world. Fox gathered data on 10 specific religious policies in 177 countries from 1999-2008, totaling over 367,000 data points. He found that nearly all governments are involved with religion in some way, such as supporting, regulating, or suppressing it. Overall, the number of state religion policies is increasing as governments get more involved with religion. Fox's research examines different types of policies, differences between support/regulation of majority vs. minority religions, and analyzes specific issues like education, abortion, and proselytizing. His central conclusion is that the main driver of religion policy is the clash between political secularism and religious political actors,

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Ike Setianingrum
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31 views

Political Secularism

This document summarizes the research of Jonathan Fox on state religion policies around the world. Fox gathered data on 10 specific religious policies in 177 countries from 1999-2008, totaling over 367,000 data points. He found that nearly all governments are involved with religion in some way, such as supporting, regulating, or suppressing it. Overall, the number of state religion policies is increasing as governments get more involved with religion. Fox's research examines different types of policies, differences between support/regulation of majority vs. minority religions, and analyzes specific issues like education, abortion, and proselytizing. His central conclusion is that the main driver of religion policy is the clash between political secularism and religious political actors,

Uploaded by

Ike Setianingrum
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Political Secularism, Religion, and the State

Jonathan Fox has gathered an exhaustivedata set of what he calls “state


religion poli-ies"s that is, the govemmental policies (con-onal provisions, laws,
regulations, some-decisions) that are concemedwith religion or religious groups
and insti-tutions. He has gathered this information for10 specific religious
policies, plus a compos-ite variable that codes the “official” state re-ligion policy,
coded for 177 countries, for theyears 1999-2008: this produced a data set
with367.410 individual data points. He claims, andI believe it, that the data set is
comprehensithis is nota sample of state religion polithis is the population of state
relfor two decades.

Fox's central research goals are, first, topresent a comprehensive


descriptive categoriz-ing of state religion policy around the worldand then to
analyze trends in those policies.After this empirical work, he seeks a new wayOf
understanding state rel itformulation. The book has three central find-ings. One is
that nearly all governments aroundthe world are involved in religion—
supportingit, regulating it, or suppressing it (and any andall combinations of those
positions). State neu-tality toward religion is the exception. See-ond, overall, the
number of state religion poli-cies is increasing, as governments are
gettingincreasingly involved with religion. Fox findsthat only 16.4 percent of
states had the samereligious policies in 2008 as they did in 1999. He is careful to
note that ihe absolute increasecontent—more policies that support religion, more
policies hostile to religion (particularly hosttile to religious minorities). This puts
clear, comparative numbers on the trend that almost all of us would admit to thta
religion is an increasingly important and often contentious political issue arround
the world.

Examine the various types of state policies, analyze dimensions of and


differences between support and regulation of majority religions versus
diserimination against minority religion, and examine in depth the current field of
policies regarding education, abortion, and proselytizing (three of the most
contentious religiopolitical issues). Incach case, there are cross-seetional
comparisons and time-series analyses. Fox is careful to make distinctions between
what his data can say with great certainty, and what must rely more on inferences
and suggestions. There is a wealth of information here, and most of it just cannot
be found anywhere else.

Fox's third central finding is his conclution on that one of the most
important factors driving the religion policy landscape is a clash between political
secularism and religious political actors what he calls the “secular religious
competition perspective.” Each country has people who believe that the state is
not secular enough, and people who believe the state is insufficiently religious.
When they act totry torealize their preferences, there ispol cal competition. Fox
call “political secularism” an ideology “advocating that religion ought to be
separate from all orsome aspects of politi or public life (or both)" . He does not
con- fuse that with people who are secular in their private lives, or with
secularizationas a societal process. Similarly, he is interested in political religious
aetors to the extent that they are trying to influence state policy. Fox recognizes
that state support for religion or hostility to religion (either in general or toward
specific religions) can have nonreligious motives. The tight linkages between
religion, culture, and ethnicy often mean that the purposes behind state policies
are not “purely” religious or secular. I say “amen” to that. Thinking that one can
isolate the “religious” factor from its lived expression in cultures made up of
people with ethnic, racial, and gendered identities as if they are all betas in a
multiple regression eguation is tempting but deeply misleading. Further, a
political secular outlook can urge state policy to be more involved with religion,
restricting and controlling it, or it can urge less involvement with religion a
complete withdrawal and neutrality.

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