Search results

ABSTRACTReligious modes of thinking about the world are widespread in Africa, and have a pervasive influence on politics in the broadest sense. We have published elsewhere a theoretical model as to how the relationship between politics and religion may be understood, with potential benefits for observers not just of Africa, but also of other parts of the world where new combinations of religion and politics are emerging. Application of this theoretical model requires researchers to rethink some familiar categories of social science.

The past generation has witnessed a resurgence of religion in global politics, but political science has been slow to catch up with it. The reason lies in the secularism embedded in the field's major theories, one that reflects actual secularism in world politics, beginning with the events surrounding the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 & growing steadily through the middle twentieth century. Today, a small but growing number of political scientists have begun to explore religion, doing so in ways that depart from secular assumptions & embrace religion's distinctiveness to greater & lesser degrees. Adapted from the source document.

The Cold War is over. Instead, in international politics, oppositions partly conditioned by religious-cultural factors have become more pronounced. Even the expectation that modernisation marginalises religion is falsified by the fact of actually existing societies which combine both. The most conspicuous example of such a society is the United States. The political significance of this is that the US has proved more competent in handling the latest Balkan crisis than the "old" European countries under the umbrella of the European Union. Adapted from the source document.

Language and religion are arguably the two most socially and politically consequential domains of cultural difference in the modern world. Yet there have been very few efforts to compare the two in any sustained way. I begin by aligning language and religion, provisionally, with ethnicity and nationhood, and by sketching five ways in which language and religion are both similar to and similarly intertwined with ethnicity and nationhood. I then identify a series of key differences between language and religion and draw out their implications for the political accommodation of cultural heterogeneity. I show that religious pluralism tends to be more intergenerationally robust and more deeply institutionalised than linguistic pluralism in western liberal democracies, and I argue that religious pluralism entails deeper and more divisive forms of diversity. The upshot is that religion has tended to displace language as the cutting edge of contestation over the political accommodation of cultural difference -- a striking reversal of the longer-term historical process through which language had previously displaced religion as the primary focus of contention. Adapted from the source document.

ObjectiveThis article explores how religion shapes Latino opinion regarding religion and public life.MethodsThis article uses a 2006 national survey of Latinos (N = 4,016) conducted by the Pew Research Center. The data are investigated through logistic regression and ordered logit.ResultsReligion does have a substantial influence on how Latinos view the role of the church in politics. Specifically, Latinos with higher levels of religious behavior and more orthodox beliefs were significantly more supportive of religion being involved in politics. Religious affiliation also mattered.ConclusionReligion is a powerful influence on how Latinos feel about the role of religion in politics. This influence mirrors findings from studies of the general population (Jelen and Wilcox, 1995; Guth et al., 2006; Smidt, 2007), giving support to the notion that there is little difference between Latinos and the general population when it comes to the influence of religion.

Political science is in same time old and young science. Old, if we have in mind politics as subject of research, and young if we think about institutions in which politics is only subject of research or education. Having in mind religion as subject of political science research, we can easily conclude that all books in early history of mankind, which were dedicated to political topics, had for the first subject religion. That is clear if we remember that first forms of political organizations in old Babylon, Egypt and Israel are inseparable connected with gods. Gods gave legitimacy to those states. But so political science institutions in generally so political sciences of religions, or politologie des religions in French, was born late. The first subjects of research in political sciences institutions were: state, political regimes, political parties, theory of politics, political systems, etc. Religion was studied very rarely. Modern political science was born under influence of French intellectuals: Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire etc. They considered that religion will disappear with education and development. Their compatriot Alexis de Tocqueville thought contrary to their prognosis. The time gave right to Tocqueville. In the second part of XX century when the world development was the highest, religion maintained its position in big part of globe and became stronger in a lot of states. That created big challenge for political science. Many of political scientists started with research concerning influence of religion into politics. That create, as the first step, centres for research of relations among religion and politics as is labaratoire RELIGION ET POLITIQUE at Institute d'etudes politiques in Paris or l'Observatoire du Religieux at Institut d'etudes politique in Aix EN Provence en Frence, and finally that created special scientific discipline among political sciences which name is Religion and politics, Political Science if Religion, Politologie of Religion or Politologie des religions in French. Politologia della religione in italien or Religionspolitologie in German.Key words: Religion, Politics, Political Science, Development, Lecturing