Revival of a Cleavage? Party Competition on Religion and Secularism in Western Europe in Times of Religious Pluralization
Final Report Abstract
Until recently, political scientists assumed that the importance of religion in Western European politics will decline and the religious-secular cleavage in party competition will decline eventually. This expectation was based in particular on secularization processes taking place in Western Europe since the 1960s. Nevertheless, recent party conflicts indicate that the question of a public role of organized religion still harbours potential for conflict between parties. This can be traced back to the increasing religious pluralization and, more specifically, to the establishment of Muslim communities and the increased visibility of their religion in societies that see themselves as Christian and/or secular. Consequently, the current discourse encompasses not only the legitimacy of religion(s) in the public and political sphere, but also other relevant topics in the context of integration or morality policy. Furthermore, the observable emergence of Islam has also triggered debates within party systems on the more fundamental issue of national cultural identities. In this debate, both parties representing a “Christian” worldview and their “secular” counterparts have been forced to (re)position themselves. This research project analysed the conflict between religion and secularism in Western European party competition since the beginning of the 21st century against the background of religious pluralization in the last 20 years. The primary research question guiding this study concerned the extent to which the configuration of religious and secular actors along the religious-secular party-political divide is characterized by continuity or change. Four Western European countries were selected whose political systems and societies have enough in common to be able to attribute different circumstances and developments in party competition to a few explanatory variables: Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. The research subject was examined from a mixed-method perspective: First, plenary protocols from around 20 years were quantitatively examined in order to investigate the issue salience and party competition of religion and secularism across countries but also across parties and party families over time. Furthermore, expert interviews were conducted with MPs and party members who deal with religion and secularism (e.g., spokespersons of religious or secular working groups, parliamentary group spokespersons, etc.) in order to gain deeper insights into the parties' current discussions on the topic. The preliminary results show that the issue salience has changed over time and that religion and secularism have become increasingly important in party competition. Parliamentary speeches by MPs and statements from interviews with mainstream parties mostly show that the line of conflict is less between different religions but rather between religious and secularist worldviews. In contrast, right-wing populist parties draw a sharp line between the Christian religion or secularism and Islam.
Publications
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Party competition on Muslims and Islam in Western Europe in times of religious pluralization: The religious-secular cleavage revisited. CES 2022 in Reykjavik (IS)
A. Rose, M. Kortmann & M. Frey
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Party competition on Muslims and Islam in Western Europe in times of religious pluralization: The religious-secular cleavage revisited. ECPR General Conference 2022 in Innsbruck (AT)
M. Frey, M. Kortmann & A. Rose
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Legislators, their religiosity, and their parliamentary actions. CPR General Conference 2023 in Prague (CZ)
M. Frey
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Party competition on religious issues in Western Europe in times of religious pluralization: The religious-secular cleavage revisited. COMPTEXT 2023 in Glasgow (UK)
M. Frey, M. Kortmann & A. Rose
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Party Competition on the topic of Religion in the Swedish Riksdag between 19991 and 2023. ECPR General Conference 2023 in Prague (CZ)
A. Rose
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Politicization of religion and secularism in Western European parliaments. ECPR General Conference 2023 in Prague (CZ)
M. Frey, M. Kortmann & A. Rose
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Politicization of religion and secularism in Western European parliaments. Workshop: Religion, secularism and party politics 2023 in Dortmund
M. Frey, M. Kortmann & A. Rose
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Who talks about Religious Issues in Parliament. GraPa (Graduate Conference on Party Research) 2023 in Düsseldorf (DE)
M. Frey
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Let's talk about Religion. Legislators, their Religiosity, and their Parliamentary Speeches. GraPa 2024 in Düsseldorf (DE)
M. Frey
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Let's talk about religion: Legislators, their religiosity, and their parliamentary speeches. ECPR General Conference 2024 in Dublin (IR)
M. Frey
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Religion, secularization and party politics - an insight view. DVPW Kongress 2024 in Göttingen (DE)
M. Frey, M. Kortmann & A. Rose
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Religion, secularization and party politics - an insight view. ECPR General Conference 2024 in Dublin (IR)
M. Frey, M. Kortmann & A. Rose
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Party competition on Muslims and Islam in Germany – a mixed method approach. ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops 2025 in Prague (CZ)
M. Frey & M. Kortmann
