New publication๐จ๐จ๐จ
Political #Secularism (PS) is a hot new topic. PS โ absence of #religious belief/membership/practice, but the conviction that politics & religion should be kept separate. Where does it come from? Look no further than here #OpenAccess: https://ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1475-6765.12585
(Yes, I'm over the moon to get this published in one of my favourite journals)
Little is known about its roots (particularly outside the US). That's unfortunate, b/c PS strongly affect citizens' views on morality policies (abortion, assisted suicide, same sex relations, stem cells ...), which are often highly controversial
In the article, my focus is on the role of basic human values (Schwartz 1992ff). I derive 2 hypotheses: ๐๐ฒ๐น๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป should be linked to โ๐๐โ๐๐ levels and ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ถ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป should be linked to ๐๐๐ค๐๐ levels of PS
Over the last 3 decades, we have seen that basic human values are linked to almost everything, including religion. But PS
โ absence of religion (although it is obviously linked to religion). What gives?
Multivariate analysis of data from Germany supports both hypotheses. Crucially, the relationships hold when controlling for three main facets of religion, for region (east vs west), and for socio-demographics
Kai Arzheimer
