they partially explain my puzzle but they also require explanation. How can we explain various
state policies on religion in schools and the dominance of two distinct meanings of secularism in
the US, France, and Turkey? I argue that these policies and the two meanings of secularism are
the results of deliberate collective actions of and power struggles between secular and religious
movements in these three countries. In the following section, I elaborate my argument by
discussing it with alternative theoretical explanations.
Theoretical Framework
Social scientific studies of religion and politics have generally focused on secularization,
than secularism. Secularization is a social process, which is claimed to have three results: a) the
decline of religion, described in terms of the loss of faith and decrease of religious
participation,
b) the individualization and privatization of religion with the erosion of its public
role, and c) the differentiation of religion from other spheres such as politics, economy, and
Secularism, on the other hand, is a political regime of state-religion relations. My
primary concern here is secularism, not secularization. A few studies on secularism per se exist,
most of which describe secular state policies.
Whenever these works apply a theory--either
implicitly or explicitly--, they refer to four general theories of social sciences: modernization
theory, essentialism, path-dependency, and social movement theory. I argue that social
18
For critiques of secularization theory, see Berger 1999 and Stark and Finke 2000.
19
Norris and Inglehart 2004; Bruce 2002.
20
Casanova 1994, 19-39. Taylor points out that secularization happened not in terms of “the absence of religion, but
rather in the fact that religion occupies a different place, compatible with the sense that all social action takes place
in profane time.” Taylor 2004, 194. Taylor refers to Benedict Anderson in his emphasis on the importance of
profane time in secularization. See Anderson 1998, 23-25.
21
For single case analysis of secularism, see Segers and Jelen 1998, Baubérot 2004a, and Berkes 1998. For
comparative analysis of secularism, see Robbins and Robertson 1987, Baubérot 1994, Baubérot 2004b, and
Bhargava 1999a.
22
Stephen Monsma and Christopher Soper’s The Challenge of Pluralism: Church and State in Five Democracies is
a successful example of comparative studies on secularism. It examines state policies towards religious schools and
social service associations in the US, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, and the UK. Although it provides
important comparative data on the historical origins of current state-religion relations in these countries, this book
does not offer a general theory on the issue and emphasizes unique historical characteristics for each case. Monsma
and Soper 1997.
9
Convention