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Polarization

Mark Chaves

in American Religion: Contemporary Trends

This chapter describes another important trend involving religion, liberalism, and conservatism. Actively religious Americans are more politically and socially conservative than less religious ... More

This chapter describes another important trend involving religion, liberalism, and conservatism. Actively religious Americans are more politically and socially conservative than less religious Americans. Regular churchgoing, moreover, now correlates even more strongly with some types of political and social conservatism than it did several decades ago. Rather than being associated with a particular type of religion, certain kinds of political and social conservatism have become more tightly linked to religiosity itself. As such, the most and least religiously active people are further apart attitudinally than they were several decades ago, but this trend does not yet warrant a declaration of culture war.Less

Shaping a New Conservative Agenda

Michael Tanner

in Crisis of Conservatism?: The Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, and American Politics After Bush

This chapter identifies the different elements in the conservative movement and delineates its fundamental contradictions and conflicts. It delineates the different assumptions of economic, social, ... More

This chapter identifies the different elements in the conservative movement and delineates its fundamental contradictions and conflicts. It delineates the different assumptions of economic, social, and national security conservatives and explains how the divisions between them could be overcome if the movement could reorganize around an agenda of limited government and low taxes.Less

An Interpretation of American Conservative Thought: Political Issues, Conceptual Differences, and Attitudinal Disjunctions

David Sidorsky

in American Conservatism: NOMOS LVI

This chapter aims to interpret American Conservative thought, clarifying the concepts and attitudes that form the background for the political controversies that take place on issues of the ... More

This chapter aims to interpret American Conservative thought, clarifying the concepts and attitudes that form the background for the political controversies that take place on issues of the Conservative agenda within American political life. In reflecting upon the agenda of political issues, the analysis of American Conservatism has conventionally been divided into three parts: Social Conservatism, Economic Conservatism, and Conservatism in foreign policy with its priority of protection of the national interest. To a degree, Social Conservatism is related to differing interpretations of the concept of liberty, Economic Conservatism is related to differing interpretations of the concept of equality, and Conservatism in foreign policy with its priority of protection of the national interest is related to differing interpretations or to alternative developments of the concept of fraternity.Less

UKIP, Brexit and the Disruptive Political Potential of English National Identity

Robert Ford and Maria Sobolewska

in Governing England: English Identity and Institutions in a Changing United Kingdom

The defining feature of English national identity for many decades was its absence in politics. This has changed with the mobilisation of a particular strain of English national identity. It was not ... More

The defining feature of English national identity for many decades was its absence in politics. This has changed with the mobilisation of a particular strain of English national identity. It was not the only factor influencing choices in the 2016 EU referendum, but it was an important one. All of the concerns that are most intensely expressed by English identifiers—opposition to immigration, social and cultural conservatism, political disaffection and support for separate English political institutions—were associated with higher support for Brexit. Brexit, however, is not the end of the story. The referendum provoked intense political mobilisation by the English identifiers, but the election of June 2017 has sparked a similarly intense reaction from the British identifiers, denying the pro-Brexit Government their majority. The two votes just a year apart have highlighted how deep the identity divides in England have become.Less

Fighting Over the Conservative Banner

Carl T. Bogus

in American Conservatism: NOMOS LVI

This chapter begins by discussing modern American conservatism. Modern American conservatism is a coalition of three main schools of thought: libertarianism, neoconservatism, and religious or social ... More

This chapter begins by discussing modern American conservatism. Modern American conservatism is a coalition of three main schools of thought: libertarianism, neoconservatism, and religious or social conservatism. These three schools have important commonalities, but they have significant differences as well. In the late 1950s and the 1960s, they were brought together as allies by William F. Buckley Jr., and his colleagues at the National Review. One of Buckley’s strengths as a leader of a movement was that he lacked the disposition of a political philosopher and was relatively untroubled by ideological contradictions. He permitted debate and disagreement among the three schools of thought, but only within certain parameters. He then became so personally popular and admired, and National Review had grown so successful, that during the nascent period of the movement, Buckley and the magazine became nearly synonymous with conservatism.Less

Incomplete Empowerment: Female Cabinet Ministers in Anglo-American Systems

Patricia Lee Sykes

in Dispersed Democratic Leadership: Origins, Dynamics, and Implications

Leadership dispersal can provide important opportunities for marginalized sectors to secure representation but it can also challenge political minorities. The success of women's movements resulted in ... More

Leadership dispersal can provide important opportunities for marginalized sectors to secure representation but it can also challenge political minorities. The success of women's movements resulted in more cabinet posts being available for women and this was especially so during the late 20th century when a ‘Britonnic network’ of reformers linked women's movements from far-reaching destinations including Pacific and the Atlantic. The phenomenal success of women's movement constituted a broader democratic dynamic that contributed to leadership dispersal but at the same time the ability of female ministers has been restricted by other aspects of political development. Their participation in public policy processes and creation were less significant than the descriptive and symbolic representation of women in cabinet posts. The experience of female cabinet ministers serves to remind that leadership takes forms of gender-specific institutions and ideas.Less

The Mexican Case: Doctrinally Oriented

Joseph M. Palacios

in The Catholic Social Imagination: Activism and the Just Society in Mexico and the United States

On 1 December 2000, with the first peaceful and transparent multiparty presidential election in Mexican history, the country began the transición (transition) from almost seventy years of ... More

On 1 December 2000, with the first peaceful and transparent multiparty presidential election in Mexican history, the country began the transición (transition) from almost seventy years of single-party rule by the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party) to a future that is as yet unclear. The winner, Vicente Fox of the Partido Acción Nacional (National Action Party), won a clear mandate in every state of the republic. What role will religion play in Mexico's changing political and social culture? In Mexico, the opportunities for constructing a Catholic social justice milieu are often hidden; it is the constraints that are most apparent, particularly federal laws constraining the Church. Moreover, a very conservative Catholic hierarchy trained in Roman seminaries and universities has historically constrained the development of Mexican theological investigation, lay leadership, and social programs. During three years of travel and field study in urban Mexico, the author found many active Catholics, disillusioned Catholics, and even secular Mexicans trying to find openings for the Church to enter the public life of their country. This chapter highlights these openings and analyzes how the Catholic actors of the transición are attempting to construct a Catholic social justice cultural milieu, despite the Church's historic conflicts with the state, its social conservatism, and its ultramontane perspectives.Less

The Myth of the Social Conservative

Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields

in The Long Southern Strategy: How Chasing White Voters in the South Changed American Politics

The relationship between the GOP and the Christian Right became so fundamental to the party’s success that Republicans constantly had to maintain a sense of urgency regarding the country’s moral ... More

The relationship between the GOP and the Christian Right became so fundamental to the party’s success that Republicans constantly had to maintain a sense of urgency regarding the country’s moral compass. Moreover, to retain the loyalty of southern white religious voters, the GOP not only prioritized social conservative policy issues like gay marriage, but it also repackaged “secular” issues regarding the environment, the economy, and even war as issues of religious-political concern. By doing so, the GOP created a religious-partisan brand that dissolved denominational differences, overcame third-party challenges from Christian Right leaders, and softened the Christian authenticity litmus test for candidates. To that end, the religiosity of the contemporary GOP is not solely a reflection of the rising saliency of moral issues; rather, via the Long Southern Strategy, almost every issue became part of the evangelical cosmology in a spirit of Christian nationalism inherent in southern white identity.Less

Introduction

Glenn Feldman

in Politics and Religion in the White South

This book attempts to get at the intersection of politics and religion in the American South. The chapters in this book strongly suggest that in the South, religion has worked hand in hand with ... More

This book attempts to get at the intersection of politics and religion in the American South. The chapters in this book strongly suggest that in the South, religion has worked hand in hand with political and social conservatism and that the region's politics have, in turn, reflected its fundamentally conservative religious temperament. This book explores the Southern Baptist racial ideology during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, factionalism and ethnic politics in Atlanta, Georgia, and traditional family values.Less

Liberalization and Backlash in the Obama Era

John Dombrink

in The Twilight of Social Conservatism: American Culture Wars in the Obama Era

This chapter establishes the basis for the book’s assessment of the state of American conservatism in the Obama era. It takes as its central point this paradox between the growing liberalization of ... More

This chapter establishes the basis for the book’s assessment of the state of American conservatism in the Obama era. It takes as its central point this paradox between the growing liberalization of some features of American society (such as same-sex marriage) and growing conservatism at the same time (e.g., the tea party). This chapter establishes this paradox as the central tension in the book and provides the roadmap for the following chapters. I examine the progress of the vitality of the social conservative approach in a decidedly different era—the time of the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military policy, the expansion of same-sex marriage, and the enactment of historic healthcare reform.Less

Catholicism and Nationalism The Fédération républicaine, 1927–391

Kevin Passmore

in Catholicism, Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century France

This chapter examines the historical importance of the Fédération républicaine, the largest party of the parliamentary Right in twentieth-century France, and its dominant nationalist wing. Founded in ... More

This chapter examines the historical importance of the Fédération républicaine, the largest party of the parliamentary Right in twentieth-century France, and its dominant nationalist wing. Founded in 1903 by the Right wing of the moderate republicans, the Fédération républicaine had subsequently become increasingly clerical and nationalist. Under the leadership of Louis Marin, known for his extreme nationalism, the party grew in popularity due to the re-making of Catholicism in combination with broader social and political developments. The party called for the union and mobilisation of all Catholics around a programme of social conservatism within a Christian society, and used a populist discourse – supported by Catholic women and workers – to counteract the ‘danger’ posed by socialist and feminist movements. The chapter suggests that the Fédération républicaine's populism was repeatedly eclipsed by its basic distrust of the masses. It considers the decline of the party and the persistence of Catholic nationalism.Less

Epilogue: Afterlives of an Invented Past

Heather R. White

in Reforming Sodom: Protestants and the Rise of Gay Rights

This epilogue argues that the support of liberal Protestants for the gay rights movement had been eclipsed by the Christian Right. Activists of this movement presented religion as a sui generis ... More

This epilogue argues that the support of liberal Protestants for the gay rights movement had been eclipsed by the Christian Right. Activists of this movement presented religion as a sui generis source for a politics led by the convictions of true believers, and they cast the gains of gay rights, feminism, and abortion as the antireligious encroachment of secular movements. In the late 1970s, the Christian Right gained grassroots support and political influence for a socially conservative politics of “moral values.” Their intervention in public policy discussions of gender and sexuality worked to effectively define religion as social conservatism. The shift toward conservative religious political influence was not a return but a consolidation. The rhetoric of moral values skirted important dynamics of race, class, and geography, which were important to the formation of a particular alliance between socially conservative white voters and the Republican Party.Less

After Falwell: Shifts and Continuities in the Culture War and the Role of Religion in America

John Dombrink

in The Twilight of Social Conservatism: American Culture Wars in the Obama Era

This chapter analyzes the role of religion, especially its conservative manifestations in contemporary American society. It buttresses the arguments presented earlier, especially the moderation of ... More

This chapter analyzes the role of religion, especially its conservative manifestations in contemporary American society. It buttresses the arguments presented earlier, especially the moderation of American religiosity and the diminution of the power of social conservatives to shape American politics and policy.Less

Mill's Radicalization of Induction

in Reforming Philosophy: A Victorian Debate on Science and Society

This chapter discusses the reforms Mill proposed in science to counter the view of Whewell. It shows that his overriding desire was to expel the intuitionist philosophy from its “stronghold” in ... More

This chapter discusses the reforms Mill proposed in science to counter the view of Whewell. It shows that his overriding desire was to expel the intuitionist philosophy from its “stronghold” in physical science and mathematics, because he saw this as being the crucial precondition for reforming moral and political philosophy. The intuitionist epistemology led to political and social conservatism, Mill believed, by reassuring people that what they believed deeply must be true and necessary. Indeed, intuitionism allowed “every inveterate belief and every intense feeling” to be “its own all-sufficient voucher and justification.” If he could demonstrate that knowledge of physical science and even mathematics did not require any a priori axioms, Mill hoped, then he would have proved the superfluity of a priori elements in morality and political philosophy. It is because of this that Mill developed an ultra-empiricist, phenomenalist epistemology, and rejected necessity in mathematics and causal relations. He thus “radicalized” induction. The chapter also discusses Mill's “final and most elaborate protest against the Intuitionist school,” his Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy (1865).Less

The Positions and Fortunes of Social Democratic Parties in East Central Europe

Vachudova Milada Anna

in The Crisis of Social Democracy in Europe

The author finds that social democracy in central and eastern Europe has not enjoyed the success expected of it since the transition to democracy and examines the reasons for this. On the other hand, ... More

The author finds that social democracy in central and eastern Europe has not enjoyed the success expected of it since the transition to democracy and examines the reasons for this. On the other hand, she expects social democratic parties to do well in the future in the face of the weakness of right-wing and green parties.Less

The Contextual Theology of Gülen: Islamic Enlightenment

M. Hakan Yavuz

in Toward an Islamic Enlightenment: The Gülen Movement

This chapter presents Gülen's system of ideas as a “contextual theology” by examining the dialectical relationship between the interpretations of the Qur'an and socioeconomic and political ... More

This chapter presents Gülen's system of ideas as a “contextual theology” by examining the dialectical relationship between the interpretations of the Qur'an and socioeconomic and political transformations. By comparing Gülen's theology with Paul Tillich's, the chapter shows how sociopolitical conditions inform Gülen's exegesis of critical Islamic dogmas and practices. Gülen's ideas are framed as an attempt at an Islamic reformation and enlightenment, since he stresses the centrality of reason, tolerance, and the public sphere in striving for the ideal society and understanding of faith. Gülen develops his own understanding of democracy, secularism, modernity, memory, and politics on the basis of his own further development of the thought and teaching of Said Nursi.Less

Conclusion: The Marketization of Muslim Politics in Turkey

Joshua D. Hendrick

in Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World

This book concludes with a discussion of the Gülen Movement's (GM) role in the marketization of Muslim politics in Turkey. It explores the ambiguous politics of post-political, market Islam and how ... More

This book concludes with a discussion of the Gülen Movement's (GM) role in the marketization of Muslim politics in Turkey. It explores the ambiguous politics of post-political, market Islam and how the development policies associated with Kemalist republicanism, institutional laicism, and limited democratization gave rise to a unique sociopolitical context in late twentieth-century Turkey. It then considers how Islam emerged as a cultural point of contention that pitted state against society in an attempt to win the hearts and minds of the people. It argues that Fethullah Gülen can be best defined as a collective voice of neoliberal social conservatism—free markets, pious nationalism, pluralist democracy, and civil dialogue. In other words, the GM is a collective mobilization whose actors seek to normalize neo-liberal wealth accumulation with aspirations for faith-based social change. In this way, the GM plays a central role in a grand effort to increase “the Muslim share” in Turkey's political economy and to rationalize (marketize) Turkish Islam.Less

When Bundy Buckles Up

Daniel LaChance

in Executing Freedom: The Cultural Life of Capital Punishment in the United States

From the 1970s to the 1990s, the distinctive worldviews of family values conservatives, civil libertarians, free market neoliberals contributed to a political culture of distrust in government in ... More

From the 1970s to the 1990s, the distinctive worldviews of family values conservatives, civil libertarians, free market neoliberals contributed to a political culture of distrust in government in which support for the death penalty would flourish. Conservative white, middle class Americans’ rising distrust of the state during this period resulted from profound disillusionment with a government they saw as centralized, dispassionate, welfare-oriented, expert-driven, legalistic, paternalistic, and bureaucratic. In their minds, it was not simply failing to keep the law-abiding safe from criminals, but doing damage to a dominant culture that cherished the ideals of personal autonomy and self-governance. The revival of the death penalty in the 1970s and its growth in popularity over the ensuing decades was one of the most important symptoms of anxiety that modern government was undermining a spirit of individualism in the nation. In representations of capital punishment, state killing not only expressed the virtues of negative freedom; it also managed the anxieties that arose for individuals living in a more libertarian world.Less

Manufacturing Consent

Joshua D. Hendrick

in Gülen: The Ambiguous Politics of Market Islam in Turkey and the World

This chapter examines how the Gülen Movement (GM) has successfully mobilized in the Turkish media and its efforts to persuade Turkish society via the so-called manufactured consent. It begins by ... More

This chapter examines how the Gülen Movement (GM) has successfully mobilized in the Turkish media and its efforts to persuade Turkish society via the so-called manufactured consent. It begins by discussing Turkish media in relation to Muslim politics, the erosion of monopoly in the country's print and broadcast media, and the Feza Media Group's impact on Turkish journalism. It then considers the GM media's two goals aimed at maintaining their legitimacy as a part of a distinctly “nonpolitical” social project. First, they must appeal to a Turkish public in terms that bridge social conservatism with international neo-liberalism. Second, they must frame their objectives so as to normalizes the ongoing shift from old to new power in Turkey. It also describes how the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi's (Justice and Development Party) efforts in foreign policy to broaden Turkey's bilateral relations with regional neighbors, and with developing countries in Africa and Southeast Asia greatly favor GM-affiliated business interests worldwide.Less