Secularism, constitutionalism and sovereignty : a critical investigation into the role of limiting religion in governance

Abstract

Liberal democracies are currently being scrutinized for their radical restrictions of religious practice. The liberal states have embarked on a new agenda to limit religion to ensure that the public sphere is free from ideological conflict. This thesis will examine what the obligations of a liberal state are towards religious groups. The thesis concerns itself with asking what the principles of secularism mean to a liberal state beyond the standard question of how it must set up its State-Church relationship. The core question this thesis asks is: Whether liberal constitutionalism requires a constitutional dominance over religion and if so what are the means by which it must protect religious rights and autonomy? In the First substantive section of this thesis, the author will attempt to demonstrate why we need to move past a view of secularism as merely a State-Church relationship, this section will demonstrate why the mode of State-Church relationship does not affect the amount of pluralism and autonomy which is present in a state. This thesis will argue that liberal states with an established Church are just as capable of having an egalitarian religious polity based on liberal neutrality as a state which has a wall of separation between religion and politics. The second substantive part will argue that moving towards a principled explanation of political secularism and its correlation to liberal tolerance yields better results. It will empirically demonstrate that all constitutions have a functional dominance over religious rhetoric within the political sphere. It will further argue that liberal states balance the dominance of religion through giving neutral reasons for limiting religious practice coupled with the abstinence by state organs from interfering with the ideological development of religions, so as to allow them to play a role in Liberal politics by translating religious reasons into public reasons. Finally, the last substantive part of this thesis will empirically demonstrate the impacts of liberal states interfering in the ideological development of religious ideologies by demonstrating how liberal states that engage in this practice harm the very foundations of religious pluralism and freedom. The two case studies which will be utilized for this section will be India and the United Kingdom.