Kaya, Serdar. 2010. "Secularism and State Policies Toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey (by Ahmet Kuru)" Southeast European and Black Sea Studies 10(4): 491-493. (original) (raw)

Competing Visions of the Modern Secular State in Law and Policy

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

ABSTRACT Secularism has become a popular and controversial topic in discussions of politics and culture. However, secularism itself is a nebulous concept that has manifested in diverse iterations in diverse terrains. This paper aims to elucidate the distinctions among different conceptions of the secular state. It first defines secularism itself through detailed exploration of the concept through history, then applies this definition to identify secular nations. I will evaluate previous scholarly efforts to compare different approaches to secularism, and propose two distinct “schools” of secularism in the modern world: laïcité and separation of church and state, using the United States and Canada as exemplars of “separation” states, and France and the Turkish Republic as laïcité countries. The litmus test to distinguish between a separation and laïcité nation lies in the language of its constitution. The French and Turkish constitutions explicitly state that the country is a secular (“laic”) nation; the constitutions of the United States and Canada contain no such provision, but instead guarantee freedom of religion. I address how the practice of secularism is informed by the interplay of historical, geographical, cultural, psychological, economic, demographic, and other elements, which create the situation of a particular nation’s secularism. Finally, by analyzing court cases, legislative initiatives, and public response to various controversies, I explore how both forms of secularism inform a country’s approach to freedom of expression, the treatment of minorities, government interference in religious affairs, and other potential sites of debate.