"This book articulates a religious rationale for political secularism in the Iranian/shi'i context. The genealogy of Twelver shi'i political theology shows that the bitter experience and lack of success of the shi'ia in the field of governance in the early centuries of Islamic history led them to link the realisation of their ideal political system to transcendental factors. Belief in theocracy has always been the basis of shi'i political theology, but with the messianic conception of the 12th Imām in the fourth/tenth century, its realisation came to depend on the will and intervention of the divine. As a result, shi'i leaders, while awaiting the return of the 12th Imām, not only do not have the authority or responsibility to take over the institution of government, but have been forbidden from doing so. For more than 1300 years, the political thought and action of shi'i religious leaders was shaped by the political theology formulated in this book as Theocratic secularism. In opposition to orthodox shi'i theology, a new politico-religious discourse emerged at the initiative of Ayatollah Khomeini in the last decades of the twentieth century, which in this book is referred to as governmental-shi'ism. In sharp contrast to shi'i orthodoxy, governmental-shi'ism considers the occupation of the government apparatus as the duty of shi'i religious leaders. In this book, it is argued that governmental-shi'ism was neither the product of a theological transformation of shi'i orthodoxy nor used as a blueprint to establish the Islamic Republic. Rather, the formation of the Islamic Republic and the clergy's rise to power led to the birth of governmental-shi'ism and bestowed importance on Khomeini's doctrine of wilāyat-i faqīh"--

In this novel and lucid work, Christopher Houston clarifies a particular modern style and practice of politics that he calls anthropocracy. In the name of popular sovereignty, anthropocracies de-legitimize the rule of God(s) even as they re-deploy it to stabilize the rule of the representatives of the people, all the while obfuscating their political conscription of the divine. In distinguishing anthropocracy from varieties of other secular and laicist political arrangements, as well as from theocracy, this book also gives readers a brilliant solution to what it calls the Turkish puzzle, the dilemma over how to best describe and analyze state-religion and state-society relations in the Turkish Republic. This work convincingly undermines two orthodox presumptions about Turkish politics: the claim that Turkish modernity should be considered an example of secularity; and the accusation that the current AKP government should be interpreted as Islamic. On the contrary, it argues that both Kemalism and the AKP continue to institute an anthropocratic Republic.

PART I : INDIAN CONSTITUTION AT WORK 1. CONSTITUTION : WHY & HOW ?, 2. RIGHTS IN THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION, 3. ELECTION AND REPRESENTATION, 4. EXECUTIVE, 5. LEGISLATURES, 6. JUDICIARY, 7. FEDERALISM, 8. LOCAL GOVERNMENT, 9. CONSTITUTION AS A LIVING DOCUMENT, 10. THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE CONSTITUTION, PART II : POLITICAL THEORY 1. POLITICAL THEORY : AN INTRODUCTION, 2. FREEDOM /LIBERTY, 3. EQUALITY, 4. SOCIAL JUSTICE, 5. RIGHTS, 6. CITIZENSHIP, 7. NATIONALISM, 8. SECULARISM, 9. PEACE, 10. DEVELOPMENT, l Latest Model Paper (With OMR Sheet), l Board Examination Paper (JAC).

Turkey’s accession to the European Union is undoubtedly one of the Union’s most contested potential enlargements. The narrative that dominates the debate surrounding this issue primarily relates to problems such as a lack of respect for fundamental human rights in Turkey, the Kurdish question and the continuing stalemate concerning northern Cyprus. This book looks at these issues, but also proposes that a review of Turkey’s experience with the EU in its numerous incarnations suggests that these concerns may mask a deeper disquiet. Whilst there are several questions that Turkey must address, particularly in the area of human rights guarantees, the concerns which raise debates regarding Turkish membership are not issues that are unique to Turkey. Turkey’s EU experience also raises fundamental questions about religion and the EU project that have greater implication than simply Turkish accession. Through the lens of the Turkish example, this book addresses these broader questions, such as the nature of European ‘identity’, Europe’s Christian past, the limits of pluralism and the fundamental question of religion in the European public sphere. This book will be of great interest to those engaged in research on European law and politics at undergraduate or postgraduate level. It is also aimed at academics with an interest in human rights and the European Union and with a regional interest in Turkey.

"Is it accurate to equate "fundamentalism" with antimodernism? What explains the growing importance of religious activists in world politics? Guns, Gods, and Globalization explores the multifaceted phenomenon of religious resurgence, ranging from the Christian right in the United States to ethnonationalist movements across North Africa and Asia. The authors' focus on the complex relationship between religious revivalism and globalization results in a nuanced study of religious political movements as they emerge in the context of rapid socioeconomic change."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Polarization between political religionists and militant secularists on both sides of the Atlantic is on the rise. Critically engaging with traditional secularism and religious accommodationism, this collection introduces a constitutional secularism that robustly meets contemporary challenges. It identifies which connections between religion and the state are compatible with the liberal, republican, and democratic principles of constitutional democracy and assesses the success of their implementation in the birthplace of political secularism: the United States and Western Europe. Approaching this issue from philosophical, legal, historical, political, and sociological perspectives, the contributors wage a thorough defense of their project's theoretical and institutional legitimacy. Their work brings fresh insight to debates over the balance of human rights and religious freedom, the proper definition of a nonestablishment norm, and the relationship between sovereignty and legal pluralism. They discuss the genealogy of and tensions involving international legal rights to religious freedom, religious symbols in public spaces, religious arguments in public debates, the jurisdiction of religious authorities in personal law, and the dilemmas of religious accommodation in national constitutions and public policy when it violates international human rights agreements or liberal-democratic principles. If we profoundly rethink the concepts of religion and secularism, these thinkers argue, a principled adjudication of competing claims becomes possible.

This study explores the relationship between the state and democracy in India in the late 1980s, through an examination of" challenges to state policy in three important areas: welfare, secularism and development. It was inspired by the observation that, while there are several studies analysing the relationship of democracy and development - albeit mostly of how democracy constrains development - as well as some studies of the impact of democracy on governability, there appears to be no cross-sectoral investigation into the question of the impact of democratic institutions and processes on state-initiated goals of social transformation, and its ability to effect these. This is the gap that this study seeks to fill.

Understanding Theologiocracy is a collection of nine essays plus an introductory chapter. The essays are independent studies on different conceptual issues involved in the ways of understanding religious and spiritual practices in general. The term theologiocracy has been coined by the author to characterise the working of religion and spirituality in the modern,secularised world. Theologiocracy, thus, signifies a rule of theology as something different from the rule of theo, i.e., theocracy. Unlike the case of theocracy (where political rule is controlled directly by particular religion), in the secular socio-political scenario, religiosity/spirituality takes a formal backseat for an indirect control of the secular world through the promotion of theological interests. It tries to argue that theologiocractic ways are found even in the case of secularism, as it is operating in the modern liberal democracy. Theologiocracy is a situation where different theologies are seen operating simultaneously for controlling the socio-political power in favour of different theological (religious) communities. In a typical theocracy, there will be a single religion to control political power, whereas in a secular democracy, many religious and related forces/interests take control of power directly and indirectly. It is to characterise such an indirect or disguised operation of different theological and religious-community interests that the term theologiocracy has been framed. Secularism, seen as a disguised theocracy (crypto-theocracy) , has been proved to be logically inconceivable and historically unavailable. A race for supremacy or superiority of theological ideals and promises seems to be the basic level from which every theologiocratic religion operates. Since the urge for power and supremacy is so peculiar to every theologiocratic religiosity, no domain of human imagination is free from the imprints of theologiocracy, especially the domain of so-called secular socio-political processes. A theoretical analysis of the political nature of religious and spiritual practices is a running theme for the different essays of this book.

This book argues and demonstrates that fascism did happen in contemporary society such as especially America, as during post-2016. It classifies and discusses the main elements of fascism to see if these reveal and replicate themselves in America post-2016. It discovers the specific syndromes of fascism in America post-2016 that reveal and replicate universal fascist features. It detects the main social causes of fascism in America post-2016. It identifies primary counterforces to fascism in America and elsewhere. Lastly, the book constructs a composite fascism index and calculates fascism indexes for Western and comparable societies like OECD countries. These indexes provide suggestive evidence that fascism happened in America and other OECD countries, even if not in Western Europe, especially Scandinavia.

There are few philosophical questions to which Charles Taylor has not devoted his attention. His work has made powerful contributions to our understanding of action, language, and mind. He has had a lasting impact on our understanding of the way in which the social sciences should be practised, taking an interpretive stance in opposition to dominant positivist methodologies. Taylor's powerful critiques of atomistic versions of liberalism have redefined the agenda of political philosophers. He has produced prodigious intellectual histories aiming to excavate the origins of the way in which we have construed the modern self, and of the complex intellectual and spiritual trajectories that have culminated in modern secularism. Despite the apparent diversity of Taylor's work, it is driven by a unified vision. Throughout his writings, Taylor opposes reductive conceptions of the human and of human societies that empiricist and positivist thinkers from David Hume to B.F. Skinner believed would lend rigour to the human sciences. In their place, Taylor has articulated a vision of humans as interpretive beings who can be understood neither individually nor collectively without reference to the fundamental goods and values through which they make sense of their lives. The contributors to this volume, all distinguished philosophers and social theorists in their own right, offer critical assessments of Taylor's writings. Taken together, they provide the reader with an unrivalled perspective on the full extent of Charles Taylor's contribution to modern philosophy.