European Culture Wars and the Italian Case
European Culture Wars and the Italian Case

Author: Luca Ozzano

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-09-16

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1317365488

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This book aims to understand the European political debate about contentious issues, framed in terms of religious values by religious and/or secular actors in 21st century. It specifically focuses on the Italian case, which, due to its peculiar history and contemporary political landscape, is a paradigmatic case for the study of the relationships between religion and politics. In recent years, a number of controversies related to religious issues have characterised the European public debate at both the EU and the national level. The ‘affaire du foulard’ in France, the referendum on abortion in Portugal, the recognition of same-sex marriages in many Western European States, the debate over bioethics and the regulation of euthanasia are only a few examples of contentious issues involving religion. This book aims to shed light on the interrelation between these different debates, as well as their broader meaning, through the analysis of the paradigmatic case of Italy. Italy summarizes and sometimes exasperates wider European trends, both because of the peculiar role traditionally played by the Vatican in Italian politics and for the rise, since the 1990s, of new political entrepreneurs eager to exploit ethical and civilizational issues. This work will be of great interest to scholars and students of a number of fields within the disciplines of political science, sociology and law, and will be useful for courses on religion and politics, political parties, social movements and civil society.

The Masks of the Political God
The Masks of the Political God

Author: Luca Ozzano

Publisher: ECPR Press

Published: 2020-08-31

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1785523384

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This book analyses the influence of religion on political parties and party politics in contemporary democracies. To do so, it compares five cases of democracies belonging to different geographic-cultural areas, and marked by different religious majorities: India, Israel, Italy, Turkey, and the US. The time span of the analysis is the period between 1980 (year which can be conventionally regarded as a turning point for the return of religion in the public and the political spheres at the global level), and the present day. Unlike most works on religion and parties, this book does not simply take into account officially "religious" parties, but all "religiously oriented parties" (with an influence of religion on party manifestos, constituencies and/or factions) even if they are officially secular. The theoretical framework is provided by the "cleavages theory", which considers some relevant traumatic social events as the origin of specific kinds (or families) of political parties; and by a typology of religiously oriented parties dividing them into five categories: conservative, fundamentalist, progressive, nationalist, and camp party.

Culture Wars
Culture Wars

Author: Christopher Clark

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2003-08-14

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1139439901

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Across nineteenth-century Europe, the emergence of constitutional and democratic nation-states was accompanied by intense conflict between Catholics and anticlerical forces. At its peak, this conflict touched virtually every sphere of social life: schools, universities, the press, marriage and gender relations, burial rites, associational culture, the control of public space, folk memory and the symbols of nationhood. In short, these conflicts were 'culture wars', in which the values and collective practices of modern life were at stake. These 'culture wars' have generally been seen as a chapter in the history of specific nation-states. Yet it has recently become increasingly clear that the Europe of the mid- and later nineteenth century should also be seen as a common politico-cultural space. This book breaks with the conventional approach by setting developments in specific states within an all-European and comparative context, offering a fresh and revealing perspective on one of modernity's formative conflicts.

The Faces of Contemporary Populism in Western Europe and the US
The Faces of Contemporary Populism in Western Europe and the US

Author: Karine Tournier-Sol

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-01-04

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13: 3030538893

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This edited book aims to contribute to the political science scholarship on populism by focusing on the contemporary manifestations of populism in light of the current context. Populism has gone global, with populist parties gaining considerable ground, particularly in the last decade: populists are now in government in almost every part of the globe. In so doing, this book not only takes stock of the previous work on populism, but also builds upon it to further deepen our understanding of the phenomenon and take research forward. The authors explore different facets of the most recent manifestations of populism, trying to engage in new avenues as suggested by recent and authoritative academic work. The approach is comparative and multi-dimensional, with a cross-regional focus on Western Europe and the USA. The 12 contributions gathered in this book address a wide spectrum of aspects, many of which are largely understudied.

Strategic Culture and Italy's Military Behavior
Strategic Culture and Italy's Military Behavior

Author: Paolo Rosa

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-04-21

Total Pages: 159

ISBN-13: 1498522823

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Italy, although it considers itself to be a middle-sized power on par with France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, has been incapable of playing an international role comparable to theirs, instead keeping a low-profile foreign policy. This has not been due to any material constraints—Italy’s profile has remained consistently low, through economic times both good and bad—but rather to the country’s strategic culture, a mixture of realpolitik and pacifist tendencies. This book sets out to analyze the influence of Italy’s strategic culture on its foreign policy. It conducts an exploratory case-study to show if hypotheses generated by the strategic culture approach can shed some light on the puzzling Italian behavior in the international arena (puzzling because Italy shows a less assertive foreign policy vis-à-vis other middle powers in the same rank). The first chapter considers the main interpretations of Italian foreign policy and their limitations. The second and third chapters review the literature on strategic culture, stressing its utility for the Italian case. The fourth chapter describes the country’s strategic culture through the Liberal, Fascist, and Republican periods, and the fifth chapter analyzes the influence of ideational factors on Italy’s behavior abroad. Conclusions sum up the various emerging evidences. Scholars of political science, international relations, strategic studies, and comparative politics will find this work to be of interest.

Stalin's Italian Prisoners of War
Stalin's Italian Prisoners of War

Author: Maria Teresa Giusti

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 2021-04-30

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 9633863562

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This book reconstructs the fate of Italian prisoners of war captured by the Red Army between August 1941 and the winter of 1942-43. On 230.000 Italians left on the Eastern front almost 100.000 did not come back home. Testimonies and memoirs from surviving veterans complement the author's intensive work in Russian and Italian archives. The study examines Italian war crimes against the Soviet civilian population and describes the particularly grim fate of the thousands of Italian military internees who after the 8 September 1943 Armistice had been sent to Germany and were subsequently captured by the Soviet army to be deported to the USSR. The book presents everyday life and death in the Soviet prisoner camps and explains the particularly high mortality among Italian prisoners. Giusti explores how well the system of prisoner labor, personally supervised by Stalin, was planned, starting in 1943. A special focus of the study is antifascist propaganda among prisoners and the infiltration of the Soviet security agencies in the camps. Stalin was keen to create a new cohort of supporters through the mass political reeducation of war prisoners, especially middle-class intellectuals and military élite. The book ends with the laborious diplomatic talks in 1946 and 1947 between USSR, Italy, and the Holy See for the repatriation of the surviving prisoners.

The European Court of Human Rights and Minority Religions
The European Court of Human Rights and Minority Religions

Author: Effie Fokas

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-04-28

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0429954409

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This book includes a collection of studies focused on engagements of religious minorities with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Beginning with an introduction of the global importance of the ECtHR as a standard setter in the protection of religious minority rights, the subsequent five chapters entail critical assessments of some of the Court’s case law dealing with religious minority claims (exploring their clarity and consistency – or lack thereof – and controversiality). In the process these texts impart a nuanced perspective on the challenges the Court faces in striking the right balance between protecting individual freedoms and respecting state rights to manage ‘nationally’ and ‘culturally’ sensitive matters. The second set of contributions makes readers privy to the varied results of this balancing act on the ground. Specifically, it offers empirically-based insight into the impact of the Court’s religion-related case law on grassroots religious minority groups working to defend their individual and communal rights. The chapters taken together deepen our understanding of the ECtHR in its approach to and impact on religious minorities and offer a rare vantage point on the Court, from the messages its generates to the messages received by religious minorities at the grassroots level. The chapters in this book were originally published in Religion, State & Society, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs and Democratization.

Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe
Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe

Author: Roman Kuhar

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2017-08-07

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1786600013

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After decades of steady progress in terms of gender and sexual rights, several parts of Europe are facing new waves of resistance to a so-called ‘gender ideology’ or ‘gender theory’. Opposition to progressive gender equality is manifested in challenges to marriage equality, abortion, reproductive technologies, gender mainstreaming, sex education, sexual liberalism, transgender rights, antidiscrimination policies and even to the notion of gender itself. This book examines how an academic concept of gender, when translated by religious organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church, can become a mobilizing tool for, and the target of, social movements. How can we explain religious discourses about sex difference turning intro massive street demonstrations? How do forms of organization and protest travel across borders? Who are the actors behind these movements? This collection is a transnational and comparative attempt to better understand anti-gender mobilizations in Europe. It focuses on national manifestations in eleven European countries, including Russia, from massive street protests to forms of resistance such as email bombarding and street vigils. It examines the intersection of religious politics with rising populism and nationalistic anxieties in contemporary Europe.

Climate Obstruction across Europe
Climate Obstruction across Europe

Author: Robert J. Brulle

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-07-16

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0197762069

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This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. Understanding climate obstruction is foundational to advancing effective action on the global climate crisis. Starting in the late 1980s, a broad range of actors--including corporations and trade associations acting in coordination with conservative think tanks, foundations, and public relations firms--mounted a long-term effort to oppose action to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change. This is the first book to document the development and nature of these activities across Europe. Leading teams of experts examine case studies of eleven nations and the European Union. Each team documents the historic development of climate obstruction in the country, the principal organizations involved in these efforts, the strategies and tactics utilized, and the nature of the arguments made to slow or stop climate action. Noting significant differences between countries, the book concludes with ten lessons on climate obstruction across Europe that emerged from the studies. Future research is suggested to aid in better understanding the development of intentional barriers to action on climate change in Europe.