Religion as 'Authoritarian’ Counterweight to the idea of Liberal Democracy? A Theoretical and Historical Approach

The history of secular democracies in Europe was accompanied by a wide range of theoretical positions which stressed the incompatibility between political claims of religions and the government of, by and for the people. Hence, with regard to the history of ideas, we can proceed from the assumption that there is an evident antithesis between (religious) truth and (democratic) politics. Accordingly, democratic characteristics and values such as people’s sovereignty, majority rule, liberty, equality, and pluralism are in a permanent struggle with religious dogmas demanding the omnipotence of god or the absolute authority of ethical principles beyond all human measures and procedures. Taking this argument, it is not determined that any political role of religion leads to an authoritarian political system or at least supports illiberal structures. Nevertheless, the paper will discuss the issue if even contemporary approaches conceding religion(s) a positive impact on democracy might be subsumed under the general perspective that religion and democracy follow very contradictory principles. In this respect, authors as Böckenförde, Putnam, Habermas or Wolterstorff seem to be most relevant. By comprehending the possible positive effects of religion as ,authoritarian’ counterweight to liberal democracy, we can deepen our understanding of its negative potentials as well. As soon as religions or religious actors do not fully accept the main principle of religious freedom and attempt to become more than one political and social force among (many) others, the political role of religion inevitably unfolds an anti-pluralistic influence on democracy and therefore develops its inherent illiberal tendencies.