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The literature holds that coalition-building parties prefer the policy distance of coalition partners to be as small as possible. In light of continued importance of religion in electoral politics cross-nationally, the distance argument is worrisome for minorities seeking political access because many minorities are of different religion than the majority representatives forming coalitions. The authors suggest plurality parties' objectives to demonstrate inclusiveness outweigh the concern over policy distance. They test their hypotheses on a sample of all electorally active ethnic minorities in democracies from 1945 to 2004. The authors find support for their hypothesis that ethnic parties representing minorities that diverge in religious family from the majority are more likely to be included in governing coalitions than are ethnic minorities at large. It is interesting, however, that they also find that minority parties representing ethnic groups that differ in denomination from the majority are less likely to be included in governing coalitions.

The article analyzes the modern forms of relations between the state and religion: a theocracy, a state religion, confessional structure, political nondenominational state resurgent religious influence on government. Particular attention is paid to the ways and methods of solving the state-religious issues (the war between and within religious conflicts, overcoming discord in the interpretation of the canons and dogmas, flirting with clerics). The analysis is based on a broad historical context. Finally, it analyzes the reality of the interaction between religion and political power in modern Russia and the reaction of the population to these relationships.

It presents no problem for a well-established, stable social world to go from the past, through the present and towards the future. However, what if the crises are consecutive and never ending? A necessity of security and support, a need of firm grounds for the worldly and social universe of the people, appears in that case. Religion could help to legitimate the purposes and actions of a society, to strengthen the determination of its people. In fact, it symbolizes a kind of social solidarity and a collective sentiment. The whole of the religious answers constitutes the sacred universe of traditional societies, but it could be included in the creation of a modern sacred, given that "sacred" does not mean only "religious". Essential part of this presentation is based on sociological surveys, conducted using qualitative methods, rather than quantitative ones.

As steps are taken towards the end of apartheid and a new political future in South Africa the theme of religion and politics is both topical and urgent. Religion plays and will play a large part in South Africa, as the experiences of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Namibia already show. The contributions from an interdisciplinary seminar held in Uppsala, Sweden, offer both sceptical, self-critical, hopeful and cautious perspectives from a variety of viewpoints.

"Secularism and Religion" published on by Oxford University Press.

The paper tackled the extremely hot relationship between religion and security and argued that religion is both a threat and a promise for global security. Methodologically, the paper falls within the area of conceptual analysis. By making use of both inductive and deductive reasoning, it tried to find answers to the following questions: Is religion inherently violent? and What are the prospects that religion might contribute rather to peace and stability than to conflict and destruction within the international system? The paper comprised four sections. The first one outlined the background of the discussion, emphasizing that the world is facing a worldwide resurgence of religion, and tried to assess the meaning of the politicization of religion for the global security. The second section comprised a few reflections on the nexus between religion and violence, attempting to prove that no religion is inherently violent or inherently peaceful, as many would assume. The third part explored the positive nexus between religion and security and the last part comprised the conclusions and some recommendations meant to improve the ability of International Relations practitioners and policy-makers to make religion part of the solution to the global security dilemmas, instead of treating it exclusively as part of the problem