The Legalization of Same-sex Marriage: Between Globalization and Path Dependency

Abstract

By mid-2014, same-sex marriage is legal in sixteen countries. Countries where lesbians and gay men can now legally tie the marriage knot include recent or longstanding democracies, republics and parliamentary monarchies, unitary and federal states, and reflect different positions with respect to religion and the cultural foundations of the nation. Countries opposed to such legalization, and those having taken measures in recent years to legally reinforce the heterosexual fundaments of marriage, present a similar diversity. This diversity in both camps gives rise to the following question: which factors, work to favour the opening of marriage to same-sex couples? The aim of this panel is to identify these factors through a comparative approach. To this end, we will draw on a broad range of theoretical perspectives, starting with social movement approaches and three neo-institutionalisms - historical, sociological or discursive, and political. We will examine countries that are diverse in both ideological and institutional terms and which have taken different positions, historically or in the present on gay marriage: Australia, Canada, Croatia, France and Hungary. These countries are broadly representative of what could be characterized as new (Central European) vs. old (Western) democracies; of a geopolitical framework that contains national, regional and international structures (EU, British Commonwealth); and of a “universalist” (or “French”) versus “differentialist” (or “Anglo-”) conception of political and social relations. The panel will consider whether transnational constants may emerge in pushing governments to decide for or against the legalization of same-sex marriage. For example, what roles does the presence of a human rights charter play in opening marriage to same-sex couples and what are the consequences of its absence? If Europeanization can be seen as constituting a pressure to open gay marriage to same-sex couples, what explains the differences in the degree of this pressure within different national contexts?