Is religion bad for democracy ?

Research Paper Assignment

Annotated Bibliography

Author: Rishav Bansal

Is religion bad for democracy?

Religion is most commonly seen as person or society's devotion or commitment to religious observance or faith religion can also include different customs and beliefs. The two terms religion and democracy have come to related almost synonymous. We can point to many anti-democratic practices related to religion and religious traditions. In addition to non-democratic regimes, the autocratic examples that range from Hindu nationalism in India to repression of Muslim minorities in Myanmar. Religion is perhaps one tern that has undergone so much change throughout the years, and yet emerged almost similar in our modern days.in fact, most of the world's modern religion are but derivatives of the earliest and oldest religions of the world. The work on international panel for social progress has led us to believe that religion is not inherently pro-democracy or neither anti democracy. More importantly we also require attention to ground level religious action and religious organizations and not just to theologies. Religion and democracy have a relation that is more complex than politics. To look at this relation and explain we will have to go back to history and see the role of religion and democracy and relations between them in the history.

Brief history of religion and democracy

Religion is perhaps one of the important aspects of human history that has undergone so much change throughout the years and yet emerged similar in modern days. With the advent of more views these forms of religion and governance promoted different social stratifications.

The major religions that are practiced today have been central elements of different empires and autocratic systems. Hinduism, a religion that emerged in India in the second millennium BC was an integral belief system for dynasties and kingdoms throughout South and Southeast Asia. Buddhism, founded in northern India in the sixth century BC, was similarly adopted as an official religion by various expansionist monarchies in the region. Chinese emperors oversaw a complex of religions and practices, but all were fused to justify imperial rule. Although religion was suppressed at the outset of Communist rule in China in 1949, most people today maintain some elements of these former state-supported religions or practice Christianity, which was introduced by Western missionaries in the 18th century. Christianity, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, and Islam, with 1.6 billion followers, are the world’s two largest religions. Both are monotheistic and each expanded significantly through conquest or adoption as an official state religion.

Love-hate relationship between religion and democracy

Not all democratic countries insist on an entirely secular public sphere, so other political theorists have speculated about whether religious traditions may be friendly to democratic participation. According to new analysis by pazit ben-nun bloom and gizem arikan they found that religious behaviour was linked to increased support for democracy. The reason for the difference is that both these factors are linked to more fundamental social attitudes, and that these are the real influencers on support for democracy. Social religious behaviour, on the other hand, increases both interest in politics and confidence in institutions. Although religious participation doesn’t seem to increase support for democratic pram pen it. Overall, strong religious networks contribute to increased trust in institutions and thereby more support for democracy. Lipset argued that democracy requires a political belief system that accommodates competition among ideas, while the Catholic church claims that it alone has the truth Catholic countries he contended, were particularly prone to instability and were inhospitable to the kind of compromise and pluralism that lie at the heart of democracy. Generalised arguments, however, continue to be invoked with respect to other religions – most notably, Islam. Thinkers over several generations have argued that Islam is inherently inhospitable to democratic government. Majority countries – including Indonesia, Senegal, Turkey, and most recently, Tunisia – have been able to construct and sustain democratic governments, but recent statistical analyses show that the higher the proportion of a country’s population that is Muslim, the higher its propensity to autocratic government.

...