Relations between Religious Organisations and the State under Pressure to be Reformed: The Changing Public Role of Religious Organisations in Europe in Welfare Policy

Pursuing a comparative policy analysis, the project looks at processes of reform concerning the relations between religious organizations and the state in the policy field of welfare in six states both in West (Germany, Netherlands, United Kingdom) and East Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) during the last 25 years. Consequently, the project takes countries into account that differ both regarding their state-church-traditions and their welfare state regimes.The project analyzes the (changing) role of religious organizations as providers of social services on behalf of the state against the background of the European-wide trends of secularization and religious pluralization in general and of retrenchment and decentralization in the policy field of welfare. Relating to assumptions of actor-centred institutionalism the question arises under what circumstances political decision making processes concerning a reform of this public role of churches and religious organisations, respectively, take place, what actors are involved and what results are achieved. The research project is based methodologically on the analysis of parliamentary documents, press releases, position papers, interviews, and websites and will also account for the media coverage.