Dropping the Curtain: The Religious-Secular Party Cleavage in German Morality Politics

Abstract

This study examines the religious-secular party cleavage in German morality politics from a new perspective by tracing politicization patterns at the individual level. It builds on the idea of issue competition and explores whether conflicts between Christian Democrats and secular parties align with the traditional denominational divide between Catholics and non-Catholics or with religiosity. By means of logistic regressions of Member of Parliaments’ politicization behavior in the German Bundestag (1998–2002) with regard to three morality policies, the study provides evidence that German politics is still structured by a conflict between Catholics and non-Catholics, whereas the influence of religiosity is secondary. If party competition is at work, non-Catholics draw attention to morality policies, while Catholics refrain from doing so. This finding contradicts research pointing to a decreasing significance of Catholicism for Christian Democracy. Moreover, the study proposes an innovative way to re-examine party cleavages at the individual level and in between elections.

Contested boundaries: The moralization and politicization of prostitution in German cities

“…Second, socio-cultural determinants were factored in by the selection of one pair of cities with a primarily Catholic population (Bonn (39.0 percent) Cologne (38.4 percent) and one pair with a primarily Protestant population (Essen (27.3 percent), Dortmund (32.0 percent) (all data for 2013). As Catholicism is still a valid signifier of conservative attitudes in moral issues in Germany (Euchner and Preidel, 2018), this factor might explain more conservative frames in these cities. Third, with regard to the partisan composition of the city governments, the cities represent counterintuitive cases.…”

Class, religion and socialist parties: The unpredicted effect of (a)religious voting

“…In Germany, the discussion on morality policies has highlighted the persistence and salience of the conflict between the coalition (Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU)) and secular parties (Euchner and Preidel 2018: 243). While the participation of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in the grand coalition together with the CDU–CSU for most of the last 20 years has favoured a de-radicalization of the conflict on this domain, nevertheless the log-odds value shows a greater weight of religion vis-à-vis class: 0.94 versus 0.03.…”

Without enemies, without friends. Morality policies, the Roman Catholic Church, and Ireland’s ‘secular’ party system

“…The role of religion is also prominent in the 'two worlds' perspective developed by Engeli et al (2012; see also van Kersbergen and Lindberg 2015;Euchner and Preidel, 2018;Hurka et al 2018;Hildebrandt 2016). The argument from this perspective is that the politics of morality issues differ fundamentally depending on whether countries belong to the 'secular' or 'religious' world.…”

“…Morality issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, which touch on core teachings of the RC Church, are among those on which the question of its political role is most pertinent. Therefore, it is not surprising that the role of churches and especially the RC Church has become a central theme in the rapidly growing literature on the politics of morality issues (e.g., Knill and Preidel 2015;Euchner and Preidel 2018;Budde et al 2018). One central discussion within this literature relates to the idea of 'two worlds of morality politics', presented by Engeli et al (2012; see also Euchner 2019;Hurka et al 2018;Adam et al 2019;Studlar et al 2013).…”