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Religion and Democratic Theory

How should democratic decisions on religious policies be taken? Due to the changing role of religion in democratic states, many controversies about religious issues lack adequate institutional forums or democratic procedures. Many scholars agree that controversial decisions on religious symbols, religious education, exemptions, or symbolic establishment should not be left for courts to decide but require new participatory, inclusive, or contestatory institutions. In several states, we can see top-down and bottom-up experiments such as expert commissions in Canada, Citizens’ Assemblies in Ireland, Islamkonferenz in Germany, religious strategic litigation at the ECtHR and many other courts, Minaret ban in Switzerland – but political theorists have not yet engaged with their respective promises and dangers.

The workshop aims to bring together democratic theorists, liberal and critical theorists of religion to discuss a potential democratic-institutional turn in religion and political theory. In recent years, liberal theorists of religion have presented nuanced analyses of the normative challenges of religion (such as accommodation, establishment, religious symbols, religious arguments), critical scholars of religion have highlighted the dangers of ignoring unequal discursive and political background conditions in (allegedly) secular states, and democratic theorists have discussed in detail the respective merits and shortcomings of different institutions and procedures (referenda, court decisions, parliamentary representation, Citizens’ Assemblies). The aim of this workshop is to combine these approaches and ask: What would it mean to take democratic decisions on religious policies – which institutions and procedures would be required?

The workshop aims to focus on two sets of questions:

1.   What are (potential) procedures and institutions to address the democratic deficit and what are their respective shortcomings and advantages? (e.g. expert commissions, Citizens’ Assemblies, dialogical institutions, religious strategic litigation, direct democratic mechanisms, compromise, reserved seats)

2.    Which methods, theories, or concepts are promising for a democratic-institutional turn in religion and political theory? How should political theorists approach questions of legitimate institutions and procedures?