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Secular Regimes and State Engagement with Religion in Post-Soviet Eurasia by Robia Charles

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Secular Regimes and State Engagement with Religion in Post-Soviet Eurasia by Robia Charles Secular Regimes and State Engagement with Religion in post-Soviet Eurasia By Robia Charles A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor M. Steven Fish, Chair Professor Jason Wittenberg Professor Margaret Anderson Professor Edward Walker Spring 2013 Abstract Secular Regimes and State Engagement with Religion in post-Soviet Eurasia by Robia Charles Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science University of California, Berkeley Professor M. Steven Fish, Chair The post-Soviet region is the only area of the world in which every state is secular. Since independence in 1991, each of the 15 states has formally declared its secular nature; however, they have had drastically different policies towards religion. The Baltic states and Ukraine have relatively liberal policies in which religious groups and people are more or less free to operate without much restriction. In Armenia, Russia, Moldova and Georgia there is a certain level of cooperation between the state and religious groups, including state subsidies or formal support for religions of declared people or nations. In the Central Asian countries, Azerbaijan and Belarus, the state poses considerable regulations and restrictions on religion, and controls religious activities by incorporating (or subjugating) religion into the state order. This project analyzes the determinates of the level of state engagement with religion (SER) in the 15 post-Soviet countries, with special focus on Estonia, Georgia and Uzbekistan as three examples of countries with low, medium and high SER, respectively. It examines SER in terms of state funding for religion, use of religious symbols by the state, formal incorporation of religion into the state, and regulations and restrictions placed on religion. The project assesses several possible explanatory variables (i.e. regime type, economic development, predominant religion and religious fractionalization), and shows SER is impacted by regime type, predominant religion, and presence or absence of consensus between secular leaders and religious authorities in each country during the state-building period after 1991. This study is the first systematic comparative analysis of secular state regimes and SER across the 15-post-Soviet countries. The project also provides more explanatory power to the term secular state and shows that there are a variety of secular states throughout the world. Finally, the research connects this region with the vast body of literature on state-religion relations from which it is has been largely absent. 1 To my family and the spirit of reinvention. i CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 STATE ENGAGEMENT WITH RELIGION IN THE POST-SOVIET REGION ............................................ 4 THE QUESTION ............................................................................................................................. 9 THE ARGUMENT ......................................................................................................................... 10 RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 11 PLAN OF THE DISSERTATION ...................................................................................................... 12 CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................................................ 13 DETERMINANTS OF STATE ENGAGEMENT WITH RELIGION ......................................................... 13 CHAPTER 3 ................................................................................................................................ 16 DEPENDENT VARIABLE (STATE ENGAGEMENT WITH RELIGION): CONCEPTS, OPERATIONALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT .............................................................................. 16 FUNDING FOR RELIGION ............................................................................................................. 21 USE OF RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS ..................................................................................................... 22 INCORPORATION OF RELIGION INTO THE STATE ......................................................................... 24 RULES AND REGULATIONS ON RELIGION ................................................................................... 25 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................................................ 27 STATE ENGAGEMENT WITH RELIGION IN POST-SOVIET EURASIA ............................................... 27 LOW-SER STATES (ESTONIA, LATVIA, LITHUANIA AND UKRAINE) ........................................... 28 MID-SER STATES (GEORGIA, ARMENIA, MOLDOVA AND RUSSIA) ............................................ 33 HIGH-SER STATES (KAZAKHSTAN, KYRGYZSTAN, TURKMENISTAN, TAJIKISTAN, UZBEKISTAN, AZERBAIJAN AND BELARUS) ...................................................................................................... 38 CHAPTER 5 ................................................................................................................................ 49 OPERATIONALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT OF INDEPENDENT VARIABLES ............................... 49 REGIME TYPE ............................................................................................................................. 49 TYPE OF RELIGION ..................................................................................................................... 49 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ......................................................................................................... 50 RELIGIOUS FRACTIONALIZATION ............................................................................................... 50 CHAPTER 6 ................................................................................................................................ 51 METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS ................................................................................................. 51 CHAPTER 7 ................................................................................................................................ 57 LOW-SER ESTONIA .................................................................................................................... 59 MID-SER GEORGIA .................................................................................................................... 61 ii HIGH-SER UZBEKISTAN ............................................................................................................ 64 CHAPTER 8 ................................................................................................................................ 67 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................. 67 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 69 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................. 78 TABLE 1: STATE FUNDING FOR RELIGION (COUNT; %).................................................. 22 TABLE 2: STATE USE OF RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS (COUNT; %)......................................... 24 TABLE 3: INCORPORATION OF RELIGION INTO THE STATE (COUNT; %) .................. 25 TABLE 4: STATE RESTRICTIONS ON RELIGION (COUNT; %) ......................................... 26 TABLE 5: LEVELS OF STATE ENGAGEMENT WITH RELIGION IN POST-SOVIET EURASIA .............................................................................................................................. 27 TABLE 6: THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE ............................................................................... 27 TABLE 7: BIVARIATE REGRESSIONS: SER REGRESSED ON HYPOTHESIZED DETERMINANTSA .............................................................................................................. 52 TABLE 8: TRIMMED REGRESSIONS: SER REGRESSED ON HYPOTHESIZED DETERMINANTSA .............................................................................................................. 53 TABLE 9: TRIMMED REGRESSIONS: FUNDING REGRESSED ON HYPOTHESIZED DETERMINANTSA .............................................................................................................. 54 TABLE 10: TRIMMED REGRESSIONS: SYMBOLS REGRESSED ON HYPOTHESIZED DETERMINANTSA .............................................................................................................. 54 TABLE 11: TRIMMED REGRESSIONS: INCORPORATION REGRESSED ON HYPOTHESIZED DETERMINANTSA ............................................................................... 55 TABLE 12: TRIMMED REGRESSIONS: REGULATIONS AND RESTRICTIONS REGRESSED ON HYPOTHESIZED DETERMINANTSA ................................................ 55 TABLE 13: DIFFERENCES IN LEVEL OF SER ....................................................................... 58 FIGURE 1: MAP OF SER VARIATION ....................................................................................... 6 FIGURE 2: SER
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