Many conservative parties that attach great significance to religion and their “adequate” place in the public life claim that they support the democratic rules and mechanisms, at the same time accusing often the political opponents of the anti-democratic approach. However, their actions show that their vision of the democratic order is far from the liberal model of democracy. The main question posed in the paper is if it is religion that is the major factor behind the particular, “majoritarian” understanding of democracy. The author argues that not religion itself but a mixture of religious and populist (sometimes also nationalist) aspects can play in this context a crucial role – even in diverse national and cultural settings. The paper is a comparative analysis of two cases: Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey and Law and Justice (PiS) in Poland. It is carried out by the author within the research fellowship at Koç University in Istanbul, in cooperation with Professor Ziya Öniş.
