Morality Politics in a Secular Age

Strategic Parties and Divided Governments in Europe

Eva-Maria Euchner

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9783030105372
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

"Euchner's carefully researched and cogently argued study of morality politics in Europe adds an outstanding piece of research to the ever growing literature on religion and politics. Its combination of quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis involving a novel data set and cross-policy perspectives demonstrates persuasively the role of religion as a resource for political action even in secularized societies."
—Michael Minkenberg, Viadrina European University, Germany "Building upon the dichotomy between the "secular" and "religious" worlds of European morality politics, Dr. Euchner plumbs the empirical depths of four nations to unearth a compelling theoretical explanation for when value-laden conflicts surface in parliaments with a strong secular-religious party cleavage. This singularly important volume belongs in the institutional libraries and bibliographic collections of every serious student of public policy analysis, especially those of us who focus on morality policy."
—Raymond Tatalovich, Loyola University Chicago, USA
This book introduces a new theoretical framework from which to understand religion and morality politics in Europe. This framework provides a first—and rather provocative—answer to the general debate on how religion influences policy-making processes. Specifically, the book argues that religion is more a strategic resource for political parties than a fundamental normative doctrine shaping political parties' policy-making behavior in a systematic and coherent way. The framework proposes a mechanism (i.e. wedge issue competition) that can be used to identify and explain the conditions under which issues related to religious values rise and fall in parliaments of the religious world in Europe and what consequences we may expect in terms of policy reforms.

© The Author(s) 2019

Eva-Maria EuchnerMorality Politics in a Secular AgeComparative Studies of Political Agendashttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-10537-2_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Eva-Maria Euchner¹

(1)

Geschwister-Scholl-Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU), Munich, Germany

Eva-Maria Euchner

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

Morality policiesReligionIssue attentionEurope

End Abstract

Morality policies have attracted increasing societal and political attention over recent decades in Europe. Even in times of serious economic pressure and societal secularization, policies characterized by strong conflicts in religious values have remained prominent. One well-publicized example was the debate over adoption rights for same-sex couples in France and Germany . Other cases include the decriminalization of abortion in Spain and the referendum on same-sex marriage and abortion in Ireland. These legislative projects have sparked far-reaching political and societal controversies; more than ten thousand people participated in demonstrations in Paris and Dublin (New York Times 26.05.2013; The Guardian 21.02.2014; NewsHub 11.03.2018).

These value-loaded issues have provoked heated debates and painful dilemmas not only in the societal arena but also within national governments , where a variety of strategies are deployed to overcome the delicacies of such complex and deeply felt topics. In Spain , Minister of Justice Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón publicly defended the new proposal of the conservative cabinet that restricted abortion on demand to cases of rape, fetal abnormality, and risk to the mother’s health (El País 20.12.2013). President Mariano Rajoy later asked his cabinet members to avoid public debates on the issue and suggested that discussions of new economic data represented much safer talking points (El País 05.01.2014). In the end, the government abstained from any reform plans.

In Germany , the discussion on adoption rights for same-sex couples jeopardized the government coalition between the Liberals and the Christian Democrats at the end of 2012 (Die Welt 06.06.2013), as well as the coalition formation between the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats after the national election in September 2013. The negotiations were interrupted on 12 November 2013 following serious disagreements over adoption rights for same-sex couples . The vice chairman of the Social Democrats, Manuela Schwesig, explained that under the circumstances, she could not recommend signing the coalition agreement (Handelsblatt 12.11.2013).

These events exemplify the fact that in Europe, morality policies regularly find their way onto political agendas and cause significant value conflicts . This phenomenon is puzzling for several reasons. First, one would have expected that other societal problems—economic crises and refugee flows, for example—would have been the priority issues, consuming most of the scarce time available to politicians. Second, strong trends of secularization should have reduced the polarization on issues that are closely related to religious norms and values. ¹ A shrinking number of citizens in Europe attend religious services or consider the church to be the moral authority , particularly in questions of same-sex marriage and sexual conduct (Norris and Inglehart 2012). And this trend is visible not only in Northern Europe but in many Western and Southern European countries as well. One would therefore expect that fewer people would base their opposition to liberal regulations of morality issues on their religious norms and that overall, there would be much less societal mobilization and parliamentary politicization in response to these issues. However, the contrary is the case—explosive and highly value-loaded debates on morality issues are the norm rather than the exception, not only in Spain , France, and Germany , but also in some countries of Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland).

Two groups of scholars have taken up this puzzling phenomenon and offer first answers. The first group of researcher stems from the broad and interdisciplinary field of religion and politics (e.g., Casanova 1994; Fox 2015; Habermas 2008; Haynes 2010; Joppke 2015; Liedhegener and Pickel 2016; Norris and Inglehart 2012; Davie 2006). In general, these scholars conclude that the primary argument of secularization theory must be revised. Religion, they argue, has not disappeared. Rather, it remains a “potent and vibrant political social force in the world” (Fox 2015, 17), especially in less developed countries and in the USA (Norris and Inglehart 2012; Wald and Calhoun-Brown 2014). Some of the authors specify that although religion has lost its relevance in society, it has become more important in politics (e.g., Foret 2015; Fox 2015; Liedhegener and Pickel 2016; Habermas 2008; Stoeckl 2011). Fox (2015), for instance, revises the secularization theory and proposes a new perspective: secular-religious competition. Instead of focusing on processes of secularization such as decreasing religiosity and loosening state–church relationships , Fox (2015, 32) suggests that we analyze “political secularism ,” which he describes as “a family of political ideologies that advocates that governments must at the very least remain neutral on the issue of religion.”

These political ideologies compete with religion to influence government policy. Foret (2015) explores the role of religion in European institutions (e.g., the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Court of Justice ). His findings speak to Fox’s perspective but also illustrate the limited impact of religion today. Foret (2015) argues that religion is a “symbolic resource” for the political elite in Europe, no longer able to structure a collective identity and hence to build a foundation for the development of the European polity. Religion helps deepen divides between nationalists and other political families, but it does not create a fundamental political cleavage in European institutions . Therefore, Foret considers the spreading of culture wars—as we find in the USA—an unlikely phenomenon for European countries (ibid., 10). Nevertheless, Foret (2015, 4, 10) confesses that religion is still a kind of “scandalizing factor” that is able to attract political attention, particularly with regard to morality policies. Emphasizing religious values is useful for symbolic posturing and sending reassuring messages. Davie (1993, 2006, 2007) provides an alternative explanation by defending a less pessimistic view on the role of religion in Europe today. Specifically, based on the concepts of “vicarious religion” and “believing without belonging,” she argues that religious standpoints are openly articulated by a minority of citizens who are silently supported by a much larger group of people as one might expect.

Overall, the new perspective on political secularism and its related findings offer a first conceptual foundation from which to understand why policy debates on issues related to religious values (i.e., morality policies) still attract so much societal and political attention in a secular age. It takes only a few religious agents to stimulate conflicts with actors defending secular ideologies for state policies and to attract significant political and societal attention.

The second literature stream encompasses resea...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• Part I. Secularization, Morality Policies, and Party Conflicts in Europe
• Part II. Religious-Secular Divide and Politicization of Morality Policies
• Part III. Linking Parliamentary Attention and Change in Morality Policies
• Part IV. Conclusions
• Back Matter