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Between Zionism and Judaism?: Religious Party Supporters in Israel

in Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey

This chapter examines political support for religious parties in Israel. It suggests that the explanations of religious party support in Israel present a microcosm of the ongoing conceptual debates ... More

This chapter examines political support for religious parties in Israel. It suggests that the explanations of religious party support in Israel present a microcosm of the ongoing conceptual debates in the social sciences in general, and political science in particular. The chapter explores the analytical potential of alternative explanations of party support, and considers the perception of religious partisans themselves and the political platforms of the parties. It also explains that Mafdal and Shas both express novel ideological syntheses and serve as transformative movements within Israel's religious blocs and also partially its secular blocs.Less

Between Laicism and Islam?: Religious Party Supporters in Turkey

in Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey

This chapter examines the supporters of religious parties in Turkey. It highlights the inconsistency of voters' characteristics with models which assume that religious parties can be understood as ... More

This chapter examines the supporters of religious parties in Turkey. It highlights the inconsistency of voters' characteristics with models which assume that religious parties can be understood as battlegrounds of a secular-religious conflict. The chapter explains that the supporters of the Nationalist Action Party, the National View Party, and the Justice and Development Party do not universally support political projects derived from Islam, and do not tightly cluster around certain religious values.Less

Representing the Sacred in Mundane Politics: The Ideologies and Leaders of Mafdal and Shas

in Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey

This chapter explores the ideologies of Mafdal and Shas, the leading religious political parties in Israel. It examines how religious parties engage in democratic and anti-democratic ideas, and ... More

This chapter explores the ideologies of Mafdal and Shas, the leading religious political parties in Israel. It examines how religious parties engage in democratic and anti-democratic ideas, and suggests that the contribution of religious parties to their particular democratic systems is not a question of whether their respective doctrines are democratic or antidemocratic. The chapter also explains that like religious parties which establish themselves as pivotal actors, Mafdal and Shas actually deal with the secular world and face the question of how to incorporate the problems and issues posed by different groups into their ideologies.Less

Representing Islam in Secular Politics: The Ideologies and Leaders of the Nationalist Action, the National View, and the Justice and Development Parties

in Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey

This chapter examines how the Nationalist Action Party, the National View Party, and the Justice and Development Party in Turkey approach the hegemonic secular nationalism. It explains that these ... More

This chapter examines how the Nationalist Action Party, the National View Party, and the Justice and Development Party in Turkey approach the hegemonic secular nationalism. It explains that these religious political parties paint their ideal polities in different shades of Islam as they try to question and complement Kemalism, and highlights the differences in their treatment of the state and the unity of the national community. The chapter also argues that the sacralization of the state and the nation has made it initially easier for sacralizer religious parties to accept a hegemonic ideology.Less

Beyond Sacred and Secular: A Comparative Analysis of Religious Politics in Israel and Turkey

in Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which provides a comparative analysis of the politics of religion in Israel and Turkey. The book investigates why religion has assumed a ... More

This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this book, which provides a comparative analysis of the politics of religion in Israel and Turkey. The book investigates why religion has assumed a pivotal role in so many countries where secularization has seemed to have consolidated its roots and how religion's growing political power will affect world politics. It explores the global rise of religion and the politics of Judaism and Islam as a springboard, and attempts to integrate some disconnected debates and contribute to analytical endeavors in some loosely linked communities. The book also offers an inside-out assessment of religious parties and evaluates their positions on a range of issues vis-a-vis democracy, through an inductive approach.Less

Sacro-secular Encounters: A Comparative Model of Religious Parties

in Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the politics of religion in Israel and Turkey. It suggests that the Israeli and Turkish cases open a window onto the complexities of religious ... More

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the politics of religion in Israel and Turkey. It suggests that the Israeli and Turkish cases open a window onto the complexities of religious parties, indicating that religious parties are capable of assuming contradictory roles in both the short and long term, regardless of doctrinal differences. The chapter also explains that the diversity of positions contained in the politics of Judaism and Islam establishes that the ideological underpinnings of religious parties span a range of positions.Less

The Leadership–Structure Dilemma in Green and Religious New Parties: Short-Term Trouble but Long-Term Endurance through Fully-Fledged Institutionalization

Nicole Bolleyer

in New Parties in Old Party Systems: Persistence and Decline in Seventeen Democracies

This chapter looks at Green and new religious parties, two groups of newcomers mostly populated by rooted outsider parties, parties that from the start enjoyed the support of already organized ... More

This chapter looks at Green and new religious parties, two groups of newcomers mostly populated by rooted outsider parties, parties that from the start enjoyed the support of already organized promoter groups and were founded without the involvement of national politicians. Compared to the other ‘new party families’ analyzed, they are the most successful in terms of persistence and sustainability. However, unlike insider formations (parties founded by national politicians), they entered national government only after a considerable period in parliament. While most of them institutionalized, they suffered from considerable tensions between maintaining the influence of activists and establishing effective, national leadership structures, echoing the tensions as specified earlier in the leadership-structure dilemma. A final section explores the failure of two rooted formations – the Australian Nuclear Disarmament Party and United Future New Zealand, two cases where party agency lead to different performance patterns than suggested by these parties’ formative condition.Less

1967 to 1973: The Miracle of Conquest and the Test of Yom Kippur

Reuven Firestone

in Holy War in Judaism: The Fall and Rise of a Controversial Idea

It was only after the extraordinary victory of the 1967 War that most religious Zionists acknowledged what they considered to be the truly messianic, redemptive nature of Zionism. Military success ... More

It was only after the extraordinary victory of the 1967 War that most religious Zionists acknowledged what they considered to be the truly messianic, redemptive nature of Zionism. Military success was often articulated in religious Zionist publications through such imagery as the “hand of God.” If it was God’s design, then was it not a holy war? The miraculous victory of the war was a clear sign to many that God intends for Jews to conquer and settle all of the Biblical Land of Israel, including those lands extending beyond the borders established by the United Nations Partition Plan and armistice agreements of 1947-48. The failure of the 1973 War actually caused an increase in rationalization and a resurgence of messianic, militant activism. Fear that the war would result in concessions of territories energized many to hold onto them. Revitalization efforts emerged among a generation of Orthodox youth disaffected with the ways in which their parents’ generation expressed its religiosity and Zionism, and the Settler Movement appropriated many of the classical symbols of classical secular Zionism that had since declined.Less

Religion in the Making of the Israeli and Turkish Nation-States: Incomplete Debates and Continuing Institutional Reformations

in Beyond Sacred and Secular: Politics of Religion in Israel and Turkey

This chapter details the ideas, agreements, and shifts that have marked the broader settings of religious politics in Israel and Turkey, and analyzes how elites of religious parties reproduced ... More

This chapter details the ideas, agreements, and shifts that have marked the broader settings of religious politics in Israel and Turkey, and analyzes how elites of religious parties reproduced religious symbols and why an increasing number of voters find these messages relevant. It warns against ahistorical treatment of the interactions between the state and religion and the reification of a secular state sphere as an area that can be easily separated from the religious sphere. The chapter also suggests that the dependency of the state on religion and vice versa, and not the state's control of religion, seem to make religion one of the most contentious areas of Israel's and Turkey's politics.Less

Religious Parties, Religious Organizations, and the Decline of Civil Liberties

Vineeta Yadav

in Religious Parties and the Politics of Civil Liberties

Chapter 3 presents a theoretical argument that explains when and how religious parties and religious organizations coevolve and the consequences of their relationship for civil liberties in a ... More

Chapter 3 presents a theoretical argument that explains when and how religious parties and religious organizations coevolve and the consequences of their relationship for civil liberties in a country. First, the chapter argues that religious organizations undergo a significant increase in their socioeconomic institutionalization only when a country is experiencing an inflation crisis and there is a concentrated bloc of religious parties in the legislature. Next, it explains why religious parties are compelled to curb civil liberties when they are in government in the context of highly socioeconomically institutionalized religious organizations, and why the absence of institutionalized religious organizations allows religious parties to moderate their positions on civil liberties. Thus, the presence of religious parties leads to religiously derived declines in civil liberties only in the presence of highly institutionalized religious organizations. These arguments lead to two testable hypotheses that are subjected to empirical tests in the rest of the book.Less

Introduction

Vineeta Yadav

in Religious Parties and the Politics of Civil Liberties

Many people believe that if religious parties come to power, they will inevitably proceed to curb the civil liberties of their citizens in order to realize their religious vision, particularly in ... More

Many people believe that if religious parties come to power, they will inevitably proceed to curb the civil liberties of their citizens in order to realize their religious vision, particularly in Muslim-majority countries. Academic research on religious parties, on the other hand, claims that the need to compete in elections always incentivizes religious parties to moderate their behaviors and policies, including those on civil liberties. Neither of these assertions has been systematically tested across all Muslim countries. This book is the first to adjudicate this debate based on systematic data covering all Muslim-majority countries for a period of almost forty years. It highlights the role that religious lobbies play on this issue and identifies the specific conditions under which religious parties do moderate their religious positions and don’t curb civil liberties, and the conditions under which they do so.Less

Political Parties and the Overlapping Consensus

Matteo Bonotti

in Partisanship and Political Liberalism in Diverse Societies

This chapter rejects the ‘extrinsic’ view of public reason examined in Chapter 4, and argues that political parties can play an important role in helping citizens to relate their comprehensive ... More

This chapter rejects the ‘extrinsic’ view of public reason examined in Chapter 4, and argues that political parties can play an important role in helping citizens to relate their comprehensive doctrines to political liberal values and institutions. Once we understand the distinctive normative demands of partisanship, this chapter claims, we can see that there is no inherent tension between them and the demands of the Rawlsian overlapping consensus. This is because partisanship (unlike factionalism) involves a commitment to the common good rather than the sole advancement of merely partial interests, and this implies a commitment to public reasoning. The chapter further examines three distinctive empirical features of parties that particularly enable them to contribute to an overlapping consensus. These are their linkage function, their advancement of broad multi-issue political platforms, and their creative agency.Less

Religious Parties and Religious Organizations: The Fruits of Partnership

Vineeta Yadav

in Religious Parties and the Politics of Civil Liberties

This chapter discusses the strategic challenges that religious parties face as they look to survive and succeed politically in Muslim-majority countries. It identifies national, private, da ‘wa ... More

This chapter discusses the strategic challenges that religious parties face as they look to survive and succeed politically in Muslim-majority countries. It identifies national, private, da ‘wa organizations and Sufi orders as the religious lobbies of interest in these countries. It discusses the institutional interests and policy preferences of these religious lobbies and how they strategize to achieve them. It introduces the concept of socioeconomic institutionalization of religious organizations, discusses why these organizations want to increase it, and how higher socioeconomic institutionalization translates into increased capacity and effectiveness in lobbying for religious organizations. Finally, it argues that given their mutual ideological and policy interests, religious parties and religious organizations are natural partners in politics. It also discusses why secular parties and nonreligious organizations are unreliable partners for religious organizations and religious parties respectively.Less

The Old Radical Right

Ami Pedahzur

in The Triumph of Israel’s Radical Right

This chapter analyzes the ideology, trajectory, predicaments, and eventual decline of the old radical Right. It discusses the rebirth of territorial nativism; Rabbi Kook’s followers, the Allon Plan; ... More

This chapter analyzes the ideology, trajectory, predicaments, and eventual decline of the old radical Right. It discusses the rebirth of territorial nativism; Rabbi Kook’s followers, the Allon Plan; the Jerusalem predicament; the return to Gush Etzion; Levinger’s success; the bureaucratic benefits of territorial expansions; the Yom Kippur War and the rise of Ariel Sharon; the emergence of a new faction within the National Religious Party called Gush Emunim; the legalization of the settlements; Sharon’s first betrayal; and the success of the settlers’ network.Less

Conclusion: Summary and Implications for Future Research

Vineeta Yadav

in Religious Parties and the Politics of Civil Liberties

This chapter first provides a summary of the book’s main arguments and findings and then discusses their scope. It presents evidence that these arguments may be useful in understanding the ... More

This chapter first provides a summary of the book’s main arguments and findings and then discusses their scope. It presents evidence that these arguments may be useful in understanding the preferences, choices, and consequences of religious parties and religious organizations well beyond Muslim-majority countries. It then discusses some of the nuances and variations that future research must examine in order to further improve our understanding of the social and political implications of the rise of religious parties. This include addressing the role of militant groups, ideological differences, external donors, and unpacking the internal dynamics of coalitions and parties. Finally, it illustrates how the findings in this book regarding the behaviors of religious parties and religious lobbies can be used to address specific outstanding questions in institutions, comparative politics, and political economy, including judicial independence, the strength of populist movements, democratic backsliding, and environmental policies.Less

The Institutionalization of Religious Organizations in Muslim-Majority Countries: Statistical Evidence

Vineeta Yadav

in Religious Parties and the Politics of Civil Liberties

This chapter begins the empirical analysis in this book. It first presents the logic and the details of the research design adopted to test the two hypotheses and their associated corollaries. The ... More

This chapter begins the empirical analysis in this book. It first presents the logic and the details of the research design adopted to test the two hypotheses and their associated corollaries. The research design combines large-N analysis of a comprehensive set of 49 Muslim-majority countries from 1970 to 2016 with in-depth case studies of two insightful cases—Turkey and Pakistan. The cases are selected to leverage the advantages of temporal variation in all the theoretically important factors within each country using a within-subjects design. The rest of the chapter introduces a new measure of religious organizations’ socioeconomic institutionalization and the sample used in the analysis. It then presents the results from systematic tests of Hypothesis 1 and its corollaries, explaining when religious organizations experience an increase in their institutionalization. The tests provide strong and robust support for the first part of the argument.Less

Civil Liberties in Muslim-Majority Countries: Statistical Evidence

Vineeta Yadav

in Religious Parties and the Politics of Civil Liberties

This chapter presents statistical results from models testing support for Hypothesis 2 and its corollaries. The results show strong and robust support for the second part of the theoretical argument ... More

This chapter presents statistical results from models testing support for Hypothesis 2 and its corollaries. The results show strong and robust support for the second part of the theoretical argument that the presence of religious parties in government leads to a decline in civil liberties only when religious organizations in that country are highly socioeconomically institutionalized. In the absence of highly institutionalized religious organizations, ceteris paribus, religious parties in government are able to moderate their positions on civil liberties with the result that civil liberties do not experience a significant decline in line with a religious agenda. The analysis accounts for various confounding factors, and the potential endogeneity of more moderate regime type to various factors.Less