Liberal Democratic Representation and the Politicization of Religion

Abstract

Political representation, as key concept of liberal democracy, is under multiple pressures. Across many liberal democracies, populist parties,who claim to have amandate for more direct representation,a re on the rise.I nt heir rhetoric,r eligion plays ac rucial role. Religion is,h owever, not only relevant on ad iscursive level but in fact involved in all dimensions of political representation and their crises. Ideploy Hanna F. Pitkinsconcept of representation together withM ichael Sawardsc oncept of discursive representation and discuss examples from empirical research on the politicization of religion in Austria in the context of migration. This case is of particular interest when discussingthe crisis of representation, as political representation in contemporary Austria is characterized by a strong populist far right party andarecent renunciation of al ongstanding inclusive tradition towards politics of religion. Ic onclude by discussing empirical analyses that show strong exclusionary tendencies towards Muslims while representatives freuquently claim to act as,a nd speak for, Christians against the increasing pressure on liberalism. LiberalD emocracy;P olitical Representation;Religious Diversity;P oliticizationo fR eligion;A ustrianP olitics Astrid Mattes is apostdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Urban and RegionalStudies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences witharesearch focus on theintersections of politics and religion.S he studied PoliticalS cience and ComparativeR eligiousS tudies at the UniversitiesofVienna and Limerick (Ireland). Previously she worked as apostdoctoral researcher at the researchp latform "Religion and Tr ansformation in Contemporary Society" and heldapredoctoral position at the department of Political Science at the University of Vienna.T here she also completed her Doctoral Thesis on the roles of religioninimmigrant integration policies.Her main fields of interest arethe governing of diversity in liberal democracies, migrationa nd integration politics,r eligious pluralism and Islam in Europe.