Political Secularism, Religion, and the State: A Time-series Analysis of Worldwide Data. By Jonathan Fox.

State Support for Religion and Government Legitimacy in Christian-Majority Countries

“…Today most governments have replaced this "descending" theory of legitimacy with an "ascending" one where they derive much of their legitimacy through popular consent rather than divine right (Bellah 1978, 16, 17;Toft, Philpott, and Shah 2011, 55-6;Turner 1991, 178-83). Yet even in this "ascending" context, religion can still be an important potential source of legitimacy, particularly when there is considerable popular support for religion or for a government policy that supports religion (Fox 2015;.…”

“…Toft, Philpott, and Shah (2011) argue that many of these secular-nationalist ideologies, in addition to being anti-religious, were also top-down and anti-populist, which may have contributed to their lack of legitimacy. While in most such countries, religious opposition and rebels have not succeeded in gaining power, many governments are increasing their support for religion in order to preempt religious-based attempts to undermine their legitimacy (Fox 2015;Schleutker 2021, 211).…”

“…Taylor (2007), focusing on religiosity, argues that the existence of an organizing ideology for the nonreligious is a game-changing factor. Fox (2015) focuses on the political competition between ideologically secular and religious actors. Specifically, secular actors seek to remove religion from government, policy, and perhaps the public sphere, as well as restrict some religious practices while religious actors seek the opposite.…”

“…About one in four countries in the world today have an official state religion, such as the United Kingdom or Iran. A similar share has a favored religion without designating it as the official religion (Fox 2015), such as the Roman Catholic Church in Spain and Italy (Masci 2017). What is the effect of this relationship between religion and state on government legitimacy?…”

Religious Diversity in Europe

“…In fact quite the opposite is true (Roy 2019). In most states in Europe, (organised) religions, spiritualities and secular worldviews do not have equal status and do not enjoy the same rights and benefits (Fox 2015). Notwithstanding centuries of conflict and continued separation, historical Christian churches have privileged relationships with secular authorities, and concertation with other religious institutions is organised according to the same model applied with the Christian church(es).…”