Luca Ozzano

The many faces of the political god: a typology of religiously oriented parties

Religion can influence party politics in several ways: directly, through the activity of explicitly religious parties; indirectly, both through the lobbying activity of institutional actors such as churches and religious non-governmental organizations, and through the influence of religious values on the manifestos of non-explicitly religious parties. However, although several studies about specific contexts exist in the literature, an exhaustive comparative typological analysis of the role of religion in party politics is still missing. One of the main obstacles to a thorough classification is the notion of “religious party” itself, which many reject since it proves too restrictive and is often perceived as carrying a normative meaning. This article therefore proposes a typology of “religiously oriented parties”, which includes not only explicitly religious parties, but also formally secular parties that have significant sections of their manifestos dedicated to religious values, explicitly appeal to religious constituencies, and/or include significant religious factions. The article offers five types of religiously oriented parties: the conservative, the progressive, the fundamentalist, the religious nationalist, and the camp types. Each type is examined through several variables related to political parties more broadly: their organization, their relation with interest groups, their ideology, their social base, and their impact on the quality of democracy and on democratization processes.

Introduction: religiously oriented parties and democratization

The role of religion in politics is still understudied as a consequence of the so-called “secularization paradigm”, which has been hegemonic in twentieth-century social sciences. Particularly, the role of religiosity within political parties has often been neglected for two reasons. First, there is a widespread normative prejudice about the role of religions in democratic and democratizing systems, where they are perceived to be illiberal and potentially anti-democratic actors. Second, there is the methodological difficulty of defining them with precision. This introduction to the special issue proposes the concept of the “religiously oriented party”. This is a party whose policies are openly based on a specific interpretation of religious precepts, but it can also be a formally secular one with relevant sections of its manifesto dedicated to religious values, explicitly appealing to religious constituencies, and/or a party including significant religious factions. With this definition in mind, the introduction explores the relationship between religiously oriented parties and democratization. Finally, the introduction presents the articles included in the special issue.

The Debate on the Crucifix in Public Spaces in Twenty-First Century Italy

Although the presence of the crucifix in public classrooms and other public offices is an ancient Italian tradition, it was never a political issue until recent times. In the early 2000s, some court cases and other events (first at the national and later also at the European level) turned the public display of the crucifix into a major issue in the national political debate. This article analyses the frames used by social and political actors in the different phases of this debate, in order to understand its evolution and its connection to the broader discussion on values in the public sphere developed in Italy in recent times.

The debate about same-sex marriages/civil unions in Italy’s 2006 and 2013 electoral campaigns

Issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights have for a long time been taboo in Catholic Italy, and they began to be debated in the mainstream media only after the organisation of a gay pride march in Rome during the 2000 jubilee. In the years since, the subject has become a bone of contention between the centre-left and the centre-right parties. In particular, a heated debate developed before and immediately after the 2006 parliamentary elections, when the centre–left coalition included parties – such as the Partito Radicale (Radical Party) and Rifondazione Comunista (Communist Refoundation) – willing to approve a law giving legal recognition to same-sex couples, while, on the other hand, the centre-right relied strongly on ‘traditional values’ in order to garner votes. After that discussion, the issue was revived only during the campaign for the 2013 elections, when Nichi Vendola, the former Communist – and openly gay – leader of Sinistra, Ecologia e Libertà (the Left Ecology and Freedom), included in the centre–left coalition, put the problem on the political agenda again, without success in policy terms. This article will analyse the frames adopted by the various political actors to address the issue in the two campaigns, trying to understand the peculiarities of the two phases of the debate. In particular, it will show that there has been an evolution in the political actors’ ideas of marriage that could lead to the adoption of a law on same-sex civil unions in Italy in the near future.

A Political Science Perspective on Religious Fundamentalism

Abstract Religious fundamentalism is a phenomenon still understudied in political science: both analytical perspectives and definitions are indeed crafted mostly for sociological, theological and philosophical analyses. Moreover, comprehensive studies of the interactions between religious fundamentalism and democracy have rarely been worked out. This paper first examines the most prominent works in the comparative literature about fundamentalism, trying to identify the main theoretical perspectives, and their usefulness for a political science research. Later, it tries to integrate this literature with mainstream literature about collective identities and social movements, in order to build a definition of religious fundamentalism which could be appropriate for research in the field of political science. Throughout the essay, examples belonging to different religious fundamentalisms are proposed, in order to clarify the theoretical issues.

Two forms of Catholicism in twenty-first-century Italian public debate: an analysis of positions on same-sex marriage and Muslim dress codes

Abstract There is a peculiar relationship between religion and the political system in twenty-first-century Italy. In particular, the collapse of the Democrazia Cristiana party has favored the rise of new political entrepreneurs eager to exploit religion as a legitimacy factor, while the Catholic Church has attempted to influence politics without the mediation of any specific political party. New debates involving religious values have therefore developed. This article analyzes the positions taken and the frames proposed by Italy’s Catholic political actors in relation to two particularly telling issues, that of same-sex marriage and that of the Muslim dress codes. Its most striking finding is the presence in the Italian political system of two distinct forms of Catholicism in politics. One, promoted by the Catholic Church and followed by most centrist Catholics, is quite tolerant in terms of social and religious pluralism and supportive of human rights and social justice, but it emphasizes the ‘traditional’ heterosexual family as the cornerstone of society. The other, ‘civilizational’ form, promoted by the Lega Nord and some other center-right representatives and intellectuals, is based on an idea of Italian citizenship articulated in religious, cultural, and ethnic terms, and thus excluding those who are not members of this community. Here Christian identity is not defined by the Church’s teachings, but rather represents a marker of Western civilization in opposition to Muslim civilization.

Conclusion: reassessing the relation between religion, political actors, and democratization

This conclusion places the main findings of the special issue in a wider theoretical context. First, it examines the types of impact on democratization processes that different religiously oriented parties have, highlighting how the progressive and the conservative types are more favourable to democratization. Conversely, the religious nationalist and the fundamentalist types have a more detrimental influence on democratization, although the latter can evolve into a conservative party under specific circumstances. Second, there is a critical re-examination of the moderation through inclusion thesis, whose validity is problematised. Finally, the conclusion deals with the issue of party change and evolution from one type to another, providing a typology that is fluid and allows for parties to move across categories.

Il dibattito internazionale, sulla compatibilità fra Islam e democrazia: alcune tesi a favore

The debate on the compatibility of Islam and democracy has dramatically intensified in the latest years, particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Among the innumerable contributions, this paper singles out those elaborated by a group of Muslim (at least by origin) scholars (Ahmad Moussalli, Abdulaziz Sachedina, Fatima Mernissi, Khaled Abou El Fadl, among others), writing in English in order to defend Islamic culture from other scholars’ allegations, and to demonstrate to the western colleagues and public opinion the resources Islam can display in order to build democratic systems. Their writings are examined in relation to four major issues often posed about Islam: the connection between religious and political spheres; the presence of concepts compatible with democracy in its political theory; the shariah and its interpretations; the human rights conception. The paper provides no conclusion, but the ascertainment of the advisability of taking more into account some precious ideas and concepts, elaborated by Islamic thinkers both in the past and today.

From the ‘New Rome’ to the Old One: The Gülen Movement in Italy

ABSTRACT The Gülen movement, led by the Turkish cleric and philosopher Fethullah Gülen, has been in the past years the subject of extensive scholarship, also as a consequence of its spreading in the west through dozens of dialogue and education institutions. While the literature has covered the Gülen organizations in many European countries, the Italian case was however still uncharted, although in the country existed, in the late 2000s, Gülen-related institutions in seven different cities. The research outlined in this paper—based on in-depth interviews, participant observation, and second-hand sources—originally aimed at filling this gap, by charting the Italian organizations in the context of the broader Gülen network. However, the current political and judiciary events inside Turkey and abroad—together with economic factors—have recently implied a significant downsizing of the organizations and a change in their scope and activities, which the paper will also try to describe, trying to sketch some reflections about the future of the movement in the west.

Religion in Public Spaces. A European Perspective

The demographic and cultural profile of Europe is becoming increasingly complex as a consequence of both processes of secularization and migration, which make European society more pluralistic and ...