Morality Politics in a Secular Age

Euchner, Eva‐Maria

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-10537-2_9

Cited by 5 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…This would not be the case in the religious world, as the parties hold more homogenous moral‐political positions (ibid.). Euchner (2019c) shows that in the religious world, party competition follows the logic of wedge issue competition. This means that (opposition) parties exploit divisive issues to weaken (government) parties or coalitions by politicising “wedge issues” (van de Wardt, 2014).…”

Section: Two Worlds Of Morality Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This means that (opposition) parties exploit divisive issues to weaken (government) parties or coalitions by politicising “wedge issues” (van de Wardt, 2014). Further, Euchner (2019c) showed that, above all, it is the minority party (i.e. the opposition) that politicises moral‐political issues, and most intensely in cases where the government may be divided on these issues.…”

Section: Two Worlds Of Morality Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even with these findings, the literature is still determining how parties position themselves argumentatively in morality politics to deal with internal dissent. I argue that it is of central importance for parties in both worlds to deal with internal dissent (Euchner, 2019c; Hurka et al, 2018). In the secular world, this is because of the parties' heterogenous ideological positions and, as I argue, in the religious world primarily because of coalition politics.…”

Section: Two Worlds Of Morality Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this context, scholars often focus on modes of party group discipline and voting behaviour in roll‐call votes (Ceron, 2015; Engler & Dümig, 2016; Kirkland & Slapin, 2019). With the increase in cross‐cutting issues such as morality politics in Western European parliaments (Euchner, 2019c), which are predestined for intra‐party dissent, the question is how parties vote and what argumentation strategies they may use to justify their behaviour to voters and coalition parties. Roll‐call votes and parliamentary debates reveal internal dissent (Schwarz et al, 2017; Slapin & Kirkland, 2020).…”

Section: Argumentative Strategies Of Political Parties On Internally ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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ReconcilingIntra‐PartyandIntra‐CoalitionDissent in Morality Politics: Parliamentary Debates on Marriage Equality in the German Bundestag

Atzpodien

2023

Swiss Political Sci Review

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This article analyses parliamentary debates on marriage equality in Germany to understand what factors shape how parties deal with morality politics argumentatively. I argue that the internal divisions of parties and their coalition parties are crucial for the argumentation strategies used in parliamentary debates on morally charged wedge issues. Internally divided parties and parties that must be loyal to coalition partners confronted with internal divisions are likely to employ a discursive avoidance strategy to mitigate the potential for intra‐party and intra‐coalition polarization. To test this empirically, I examine the speeches of the German Bundestag on the Life Partnership Act in 2000 and Marriage for All in 2016 and 2017. The qualitative content analysis confirms my argument: The internally divided CDU and its coalition partners applied avoidance strategies by framing the issue primarily around constitutional principles and using procedural arguments, rather than framing the discourse as an issue of morality politics.ZusammenfassungDer Artikel analysiert parlamentarische Debatten zur Anerkennung gleichgeschlechtlicher Partnerschaften und Ehen in Deutschland, um zu verstehen, welche Faktoren die Argumentationen von Parteien im Wettbewerb um Moralpolitik beeinflussen. Ich argumentiere, dass die interne Spaltung von Parteien und ihrer Koalitionsparteien entscheidend für die Argumentationsstrategien ist, die in parlamentarischen Debatten über moralisch aufgeladene „wedge issues “verwendet werden. Intern gespaltene Parteien und Parteien, die loyal zu Koalitionspartnern sein müssen, die mit internen Spaltungen konfrontiert sind, verwenden eine diskursive Vermeidungsstrategie, um das Potenzial für eine innerparteiliche und koalitionsinterne Polarisierung abzuschwächen. Das Argument wird anhand einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse von Reden von Abgeordneten des Deutschen Bundestages zum Lebenspartnerschaftsgesetz im Jahr 2000 und zur Ehe für Alle im Jahr 2016/2017 bestätigt: Die innerparteilich zerstrittene CDU und ihre Koalitionspartner wendeten Vermeidungsstrategien an, indem sie das Thema in erster Linie in Zusammenhang mit verfassungsrechtlichen Grundsätzen thematisieren und prozedurale Argumente verwendeten, anstatt den Diskurs als eine moralpolitische Frage zu gestalten.RésuméCet article analyse les débats parlementaires afin de comprendre les facteurs qui façonnent la manière dont les partis traitent la politique morale sur le plan argumentatif. Je soutiens que les divisions au sein des partis et entre les partis d'une coalition représentent un facteur décisif dans les stratégies d'argumentation utilisées dans les débats parlementaires sur les questions morales portant à controverse (« wedge issues »). Les partis divisés en interne et les partis devant rester loyaux envers leurs partenaires de coalition, eux‐mêmes confrontés à des divisions internes, sont susceptibles d'employer une stratégie discursive d'évitement pour atténuer le potentiel de polarisation intra‐parti et intra‐coalition. Pour tester cela empiriquement, j'examine les discours du Bundestag allemand sur la loi relative au partenariat de vie enregistré en 2000 et celle instituant le mariage pour tous en 2016/17. L'analyse qualitative de ces textes confirme mon argument: La CDU, divisée en interne, et ses partenaires de coalition ont appliqué des stratégies d'évitement en abordant la question principalement autour des principes constitutionnels et en utilisant des arguments procéduraux, plutôt que de cadrer le discours comme une question de politique morale.

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Section: Two Worlds Of Morality Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Two Worlds Of Morality Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Two Worlds Of Morality Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Argumentative Strategies Of Political Parties On Internally ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

ReconcilingIntra‐PartyandIntra‐CoalitionDissent in Morality Politics: Parliamentary Debates on Marriage Equality in the German Bundestag

Atzpodien

2023

Swiss Political Sci Review

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“…The hypothesis that religion has acted as a strong voting driver for socialist parties is not due to an increasing adhesion of socialist voters to any religion. Rather, religion has acted as a new mobilizing factor for socialist voters, with an a contrario logic: the secular and permissive attitudes expressed by socialist parties on a series of ethical–moral issues since the end of the 1990s (Dobbelaere and Pérez-Agote 2015; Engeli et al 2013; Euchner 2019; Rennwald 2020; Studlar and Burns 2015) which has placed them in confrontation with confessional parties and religious associations. This cultural divide (opposition to religious prescriptions on a series of liberalizing issues) might have provided socialist parties with more appeal than traditional class-related issues.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Ignazi

Tuorto

2022

Party Politics

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In recent years, academic literature has stressed the declining importance of social class and religion as determinants of vote. In particular, many scholars have found that the working-class vote is no longer mostly addressed to socialist parties, whereas religious people still massively support confessional and conservative parties. This article explores the actual resilience of the two cleavages with particular attention to the relationship between religion and socialist parties. Our analysis, based on European Social Survey (ESS) data covering 13 West European countries in the period 2002–2014, proves that ‘a-religiosity’ – negative attitudes towards religion – has overcome social class as the determinant of a socialist vote, thanks to the emergence of a divisive ethical–moral agenda. This process is more visible in those countries where the Church and religious associations play an active role in the political arena and the ethical–moral issues have been politicized, as in Catholic and multi-faith countries.

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Fighting against assisted dying in Spain: catholic-inspired civic mobilization during the COVID-19 pandemic

García Martín,

Perugorría

2024

Politics and Religion

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The article analyzes the network structure and dynamics of the Spanish field of catholic-inspired secular organizations (CISO-N), and their mobilization against the Euthanasia Bill amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to a relational perspective, it adopts a historical-comparative approach to political opportunities that affect the praxis of these organizations. Drawing on 7-year fieldwork, including in-depth interviews with CISO-N activists and participant observation of their demonstrations, it traces CISO-N's discourse of ‘moral panic’ and ties to religious and political organizations, particularly the far-right party VOX. We advance a novel perspective, bridging literature on assisted dying and social movement studies, particularly focusing on far-right Christian populist mobilizations. The article offers one of the first sociological analyses of euthanasia as the new moral, political, and cultural neoconservative anti-rights front, which has been mainly studied from bioethics, socio-medical studies, and medical jurisprudence perspectives.

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Morality Politics in a Secular Age

Cited by 5 publications

References 54 publications

ReconcilingIntra‐PartyandIntra‐CoalitionDissent in Morality Politics: Parliamentary Debates on Marriage Equality in the German Bundestag

ReconcilingIntra‐PartyandIntra‐CoalitionDissent in Morality Politics: Parliamentary Debates on Marriage Equality in the German Bundestag

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

Fighting against assisted dying in Spain: catholic-inspired civic mobilization during the COVID-19 pandemic

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