A New Culture of Parliamentary Politics in Post-Secular Times? Religion as Strategic Resource of the Opposition-Government Game

Many studies have argued and demonstrated that secularization did not result in the demise of religion in Europe, neither in the private nor in the public sphere. By contrast, religion is increasingly visible in politics today as the conflict between religious and secular forces has intensified. By exploring how the new visibility of religion in politics crystals out in parliamentary politics on value-loaded issues, the paper contributes to an open question in the literature. Specifically, it aims to uncover how the “new” role of religion transforms the political culture of the game between government and opposition parties. So, the main research question is: Are we confronted with a new culture of parliamentary politics in post-secular times? The main argument is that Europe moves towards a conflict-oriented culture of parliamentary politics in which religion is an important strategic resource for opposition parties. The argument is investigated in a comparative analysis of the politicization processes of two morality issues in four different Western European parliaments (Germany, Spain, Austria and the Netherlands) and over a time frame of 20 years (1995-2015).