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Civil Society and Civil Religion in Russia
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Warhola,James: Religiosity, Politics, and the Formation of Civil Society in Multinational Russia.
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The publication presents four scenarios regarding the future of Russia and the role of civil society and religion. The first scenario is the emergence of a vibrant civil society, coupled with political institutions favorable and sufficiently flexible to settle the ethnic issues along with a “stabilized” religiosity that is tolerant and increasingly characterized by mutual good-will and flexibility in working with other faiths. The second one is entrenchment of managed pluralism and hegemonic ecumenism by the Orthodox Church. Another possible scenario is the emergence of “semi-authoritarianism” similar to that of most of the post-Soviet republics. Finally, according to the author, Russia could experience a descent into classical authoritarianism, with little if any civil society. Such a scenario includes also a return to an authoritarian approach to religion.
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US Bureau of Democracy (2004): Human Rights, and Labor. International Religious Freedom Report.
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The report gives an account of the religious freedom in Russia in 2004. It deals with the religious demography, status of religious freedom, and societal attitudes in Russia. The report concludes that despite the fact that the Constitution provides for freedom of religion and the Government generally respects this right in practice, in some cases the authorities imposed restrictions on some groups. According to the report the Constitution “provides for the equality of all religions before the law and the separation of church and state; however, the Government did not always respect this provision”.
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Todorova, Nonka: Legal Framework of State-Church Relationships in Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia, and Bulgaria Today.
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The author argues that democratization requires changes and development in two basic directions: harmonizing legislature on state-Church relationships with the international legal tools and the European legal standards; and forming a favorable social context for adequate and effective operation of the relevant laws. She concludes that even if national legal texts were to be literally adopted and copied from the developed democratic countries, still the question of the application of these texts would remain. At the same time, the pressure of European legal standards, tools, and practices as a fundamental framework of values and motivation is an element of the necessary and difficult evolution of state-church relations. According to Todorova, the success and future of democracy in the delicate sphere of religion will depend on the future of the European Union.
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Muntean, Aurelian: Supporting the inter-denominational cooperation through public policies.
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The publication puts forward recommendations on how current public policy on inter-denominational relations and policy alternatives in Romania can improve cooperation. The author argues that the current situation concerning the place of churches in civil society is characterized by a lack of clear legislative framework. In his opinion, in order to increase inter-denominational cooperation, the government should take the following measures: diversify the funding for churches; encourage the public-private partnership at the level of church-based NGOs; and direct the churches towards alternative sources of funding.
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Kouznetsova-Morenko, Irina: Islam in the Mass-Media Space of Russia and Tatarstan: Policy and Social Analysis.
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The purpose of the investigation is to study the Russian and Tatarstan media policy towards Islam in a context of interreligious tolerance and to research potential of transformations in media policy. The project is based on a study of the level of attention that Russian and Regional press pay to the life of Muslims in republics of traditional distribution of Hanafit maskhab (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan) and an analysis of the opinions and stereotypes concerning Islam and Muslims presented by the mass-media. The author concludes that the Russian and the Tatarstan mass media influence the formation of a negative image of Muslim faith and Muslims.
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