“Twin tolerations” means that there is a clear distinction and a mutual respect between political authorities and religious leaders and bodies. When true differentiation is accomplished, the religious sector enjoys freedom of activity and the ability to peacefully influence its members but does not wield direct political power. A country’s ability to implement the principle of differentiation directly affects the successful development of democracy.
He then asks three important questions:
1. What are the minimal core institutional and political requirements for democracy?
• According to Dahl’s eight conditions core requirements for democracy are:
1. freedom to form and join organizations
2. Freedom of expression
3. The right to vote
4. Eligibility for public office
5. the right of political leaders to compete for support and votes
6. Alternative sources of information
7. Free and fair elections; and
8. Institutions for making government policies depend on votes and other expressions of preference.
• They are insufficient because no matter how free and fair the elections and no matter how large the government’s majority, democracy must also have a constitution that itself is democratic in that it respects fundamental liberties and offers considerable protections for minority rights.
The Term Paper on Political Socialization Voter Turnout
AbstractLow voting turnouts among young adults has become a trend apparent around the globe. This trend is particularly evident in the United States. Various research projects have been carried out in attempt to discover how to involve younger generations in politics. It has been proven that the implementation of specialized programs, during post-elementary through high-school years does have a ...
2. How have a set of long-standing democracies (the European Union countries) actually met these minimal boundary requirements and what “maps of misreading” can be extracted from this experience?
• Established churches: He notes that as of 1990, five EU countries—Denmark, Finland, Greece, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—plus the non-EU country Norway, had established churches. Furthermore, every long-standing west European democracy with a strong Lutheran majority—Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, and Norway—had an established churches.
• Education: In the Netherlands, Austria and Germany there exists extensive state support for private religious education.
• Political Parties: Christian Democratic parties have frequently ruled in Germany, Austria, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. The only EU member whose constitution explicitly prohibits political parties from using religious symbols is, surprisingly, Portugal.
Conclusion: Virtually no Western European democracy now has a rigid or hostile separation of church and state. Indeed, most have arrived at a democratically negotiated freedom of religion from state interference and all of them allow religious groups freedom, not only of private worship, but to organize groups in civil society
Extra Note: When Islamic parties emerge victorious in democratic elections, as happened in Algeria in 1992 and Turkey in 1996, there is widespread sympathy when the military intervenes to thwart democratization in the name of protecting secular, Western-style democracy. Stepan asks, “Are these correct readings or dangerous misreading’s of the lessons of the relationship of church and state in Western democracies?”
3. Based on the above answers, what lessons can be learned and applied to other religious systems, in particular those that Huntington identifies as having a civilizational problem with democracy (i.e., Confucianism, Islam and Eastern Orthodox Christianity)?
1) The assumption of univocality. We should beware of assuming that any religion’s doctrine is univocally prodemocratic or antidemocratic. Western Christianity has certainly been multivocal concerning democracy and the twin tolerations. At certain times in its history, Catholic doctrine has been marshaled to oppose liberalism, the nation-state, tolerance, and democracy. In the name of Catholicism, the Inquisition committed massive human rights violations.
The Term Paper on Describe The Goals And Uses Of Political Science citizenship And Democracy And Political Actors
Describe the goals and uses of political science (citizenship and democracy) and political actors. An elitist Plato, opposed to democracy and hostile to the masses, fills the literature. In the midst of an extensive philological and grammatical commentary on Plato's Republic, James Adam (1902, 2.24, ad loc. 494a) includes the following brief but telling observation: "The theory of Ideas is not a ...
When we consider the question of non-Western religions and their relationship to democracy we should explore whether these doctrines contain multivocal components that are usable for the political construction of the twin tolerations.
2) The fallacy of “unique founding conditions.” This fallacy involves the assumption that the unique constellation of specific conditions must be present at the birth of such phenomena. He gives an example of Korea, Taiwan, or Hong Kong would deny that these polities have created their own dynamic form of capitalism. The fallacy, of course, is to confuse the conditions associated with the invention of something with the possibility of its replication.
3) Removing religion from the political agenda. He suggests that public arguments about the place of religion are appropriate only if they employ, or at least can employ, freestanding conceptions of political justice.
