Suchergebnisse

Globalization and Society: Processes of Differentiation Examined, R.
Breton and J.G. Reitz, eds., Praeger: Westport, 2003, pp. 321.There is currently a plethora of books on globalization in all of its
guises. Many of these fail to seriously contribute to a growing body of
literature in any intellectually rigorous way because they either simply
re-hash well-worn notions about global political economy or culture, or
provide a weakly disguised postmodern attempt to textualise social and
economic change. There are some notable exceptions, however, and this book
is one of them. The first thing to strike you with this edited collection
is the sheer breadth of the scale ranging from trends in global inequality
to considerations about nationalism and the crisis of the welfare state.
This is a comprehensive treatment of a highly complex set of processes
which does not uncritically apply the term "globalization"
without recourse to informed theoretical debate concerning the active role
of civil society, forms of governmentality and the nation state. While the
authors do not completely escape forms of reductionism in the language
used, they do nonetheless attempt to ground this reasoning within a
critical context which avoids the excesses of idiosyncratic localization
or convergence theories.

In this paper we offer a critical assessment of the politics of the Christian Right and question the degree to which the religious values of the Christian Right are compatible with a democratic political culture. If religious values are equally political values making the separation of religious belief and political action a fraught exercise, then a number of issues arise. Political action inspired by religious faith should not prevent critical scrutiny of the underlying values, or more importantly, their influence in shaping public debate and public policy. If religious values are indeed political values, then do protections of freedom of religious expression privilege forms of faith-based politics over secular forms? And if so, to what end? We argue that a more nuanced analysis of the intersection of religion and politics is required to ensure that public politics is not threatened by particular forms of religious political activism that exhibit totalitarian tendencies. At the very least, close attention needs to be focused on particular policy advocates and the agenda they seek to advance with little accountability or transparency despite claims to represent the public interest. It is to these ends that this paper makes a contribution