Liberal Democratic Representation and the Politicization of Religion

Political representation, as key concept of liberal democracy, is under multiple pressures. Across many liberal democracies, populist parties, who claim to haveamandate for more direct representation, are on the rise. In their rhetoric, religion plays a crucial role. Religion is, however, not only r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Interdisciplinary journal for religion and transformation in contemporary society
Main Author: Mattes, Astrid (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill [2018]
In: Interdisciplinary journal for religion and transformation in contemporary society
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Democracy / Representation (Politics) / Religion / Politicalization
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
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Summary:Political representation, as key concept of liberal democracy, is under multiple pressures. Across many liberal democracies, populist parties, who claim to haveamandate for more direct representation, are on the rise. In their rhetoric, religion plays a crucial role. Religion is, however, not only relevant on a discursive level but in fact involved in all dimensions of political representation and their crises. I deploy Hanna F. Pitkin's concept of representation together with Michael Saward's concept of discursive representation and discuss examples from empirical research on the politicization of religion in Austria in the context of migration. This case is of particular interest when discussing the crisis of representation, as political representation in contemporary Austria is characterized by a strong populist far right party and a recent renunciation of a longstanding inclusive tradition towards politics of religion. I conclude by discussing empirical analyses that show strong exclusionary tendencies towards Muslims while representatives freuquently claim to act as, and speak for, Christians against the increasing pressure on liberalism.
ISSN:2364-2807
Contains:Enthalten in: Interdisciplinary journal for religion and transformation in contemporary society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.14220/jrat.2018.4.2.142