Reason, Religion, and Democracy

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 11
One: Liberal Democracy......Page 13
I. Declining Support for Politics and Politicians in Western Democracies......Page 14
A. Switzerland......Page 18
B. Nigeria......Page 19
C. Discussion......Page 21
III. What is Liberal Democracy?......Page 25
IV. Citizenship and Liberal Democracy......Page 27
A. Threats to Liberalism......Page 29
B. Threats to Democracy......Page 31
VI. A Clash Between What and What?......Page 35
VII. Plan of the Book......Page 37
VIII. A Caveat......Page 39
Part I: Fundamentals: Evolution, Psychology, Reasoning, and Religion......Page 41
I. Behavioral Psychology......Page 43
III. Evolutionary Psychology......Page 47
A. Understanding Causality......Page 48
B. Inducing Cooperation......Page 49
C. Group Loyalty......Page 51
D. A Sense of Fairness......Page 54
A. Episodic Culture......Page 55
C. Mythic Culture......Page 56
D. Theoretic Culture......Page 58
V. Learning......Page 59
VI. Conclusions......Page 61
Three: Religion......Page 63
I. Religion and Causality......Page 64
II. Religion and Death......Page 66
III. Religion and Morality......Page 67
IV. Religion as an Exchange Relationship......Page 68
V. Summary of Local Religions......Page 70
VI. Universal Religions......Page 72
VII. The Origin of Universal Religions......Page 78
VIII. Contrasting the Theoretical Systems of Modern and Traditional Societies......Page 80
IX. Science and Religion......Page 84
X. Religion, Identity, and Values......Page 86
XI. Religion and Traditionalism......Page 87
Part II: A Historical Look at the State, Democracy, and Religion......Page 89
I. Tribal Societies......Page 91
B. Origin of the Sumerian City-State......Page 93
D. Appraisal......Page 95
A. Origin......Page 97
C. Appraisal......Page 98
B. Confucianism......Page 99
C. Legalism......Page 100
E. Appraisal......Page 101
V. Conclusions......Page 103
Five: Athens and Rome......Page 105
I. The Greek City-State – Background......Page 106
II. The Birth of Science and Reasoning......Page 107
III. The Role of Religion in Greece......Page 111
A. Structural Characteristics......Page 112
B. The Cleisthenes’ Reforms......Page 113
C. Citizenship......Page 115
V. Appraisal of the Contributions of Ancient Greece......Page 118
VI. Rome......Page 119
A. Politics in Rome......Page 120
B. Roman Citizenship......Page 122
C. Religion in Rome......Page 123
VII. Conclusions......Page 126
A. The Revelations......Page 128
B. The Spread of Islam......Page 130
C. Miracles......Page 132
D. Appraisal......Page 133
II. The Religion of the Caliphate – Islam......Page 135
III. The Politics of the Caliphate......Page 138
IV. Science in the Caliphate......Page 140
V. Appraisal......Page 143
Seven: The Renaissance......Page 148
I. Religion......Page 150
II. Science......Page 154
A. The Feudal State......Page 159
B. West European City-States......Page 160
C. Venice......Page 162
D. The Dutch Republic......Page 166
IV. Conclusions......Page 169
A. Rationalism, Empiricism, and Scientific Methodology......Page 171
B. Contractarianism......Page 174
A. Attacks on Christianity......Page 181
B. Materialism......Page 183
C. Atheism......Page 184
III. The Pursuit of Happiness......Page 185
A. Education......Page 187
B. Religion and the Church......Page 188
C. Civil Liberties......Page 189
D. Law and Justice......Page 190
E. Politics......Page 193
F. Economics......Page 195
V. The French Revolution......Page 197
VI. The American Revolution......Page 200
A. The Enlightenment Zeitgeist: Reason, Optimism, and Progress......Page 203
B. Burke's Challenge to the Enlightenment......Page 205
C. The Legacy of the Enlightenment......Page 207
I. The Resurgence of Religion in Early-Nineteenth-Century Europe......Page 209
II. The Church, Modernism, and Democracy......Page 210
III. Religion and Liberalism......Page 214
IV. The Rise of Liberal Democracy in the Nineteenth Century......Page 215
V. The Rise of Political Identification in the Nineteenth Century......Page 225
A. The Weltanschauung of National Socialism......Page 229
B. Christians as Nazis, Nazis as Christians......Page 233
C. The Vatican and Fascism......Page 235
D. An Interpretation......Page 240
VII. Liberalism, Democracy, and Religion Following the French Revolution......Page 245
Epilogue to Part Two......Page 247
Part III: The Institutions of Liberal Democracy......Page 249
Ten: Democracy and Citizenship......Page 251
A. The Optimal Provision of a Public Good......Page 252
B. The Optimal Amount of a Private Good in the Presence of an Externality......Page 253
C. Redistribution......Page 255
A. The Condorcet Jury Theorem......Page 258
B. Rae's Theorem......Page 259
III. Good Politics Requires Good Citizens......Page 261
IV. Bad Politics......Page 263
V. Democratic Failure......Page 269
VI. Is Literacy Enough?......Page 277
VII. Conclusions......Page 279
I. The Choice of Voting Rule......Page 283
II. From the Constitutional Voting Rule to Constitutional Rights......Page 286
III. Salient Characteristics of Constitutional Rights......Page 289
IV. The Relative Nature of Constitutional Rights......Page 292
V. Constitutional Rights and Liberal Democracy......Page 293
B. Rights and the Tyranny of the Majority......Page 294
C. Restrictions on Rights Once Again......Page 296
VI. Do Groups Have Rights?......Page 297
A. Language Rights......Page 299
B. Religious and Cultural Group Rights......Page 301
A. Are There Natural or Human Rights?......Page 306
B. The Relative Nature of Constitutional Rights Once Again......Page 310
C. Natural Rights as “Trumps” of Constitutional Rights......Page 312
VIII. Economic Entitlements as Constitutional Rights......Page 313
A. Why Cosmopolitan Rights?......Page 314
B. The Morality of International Transfers to Reduce World Poverty......Page 317
C. Combating World Poverty......Page 318
X. Constitutional Rights, Moral Rights, and Unanimity......Page 322
XI. Conclusions......Page 325
I. Why State Education?......Page 328
II. The Separation of Church and State......Page 333
A. In the United States......Page 335
B. In Spain......Page 336
C. In South Africa......Page 337
D. Implications......Page 338
B. Obtaining Skilled Workers and Entrepreneurs......Page 341
D. A Caveat......Page 342
A. Overcrowding......Page 343
D. Ideology......Page 344
E. Race......Page 345
F. Religion......Page 346
H. Commentary......Page 348
VI. The Nature of the Costs of Heterogeneity......Page 349
VII. Must a Liberal Democracy Have a Liberal Immigration Policy?......Page 350
A. The Case for Open Borders......Page 351
B. Critique......Page 352
VIII. Discussion......Page 358
Part IV: Challenges to Liberal Democracy......Page 365
Thirteen: Democracy and Religion......Page 367
I. Religion and Democracy in Homogeneous Communities......Page 368
II. Religion and Democracy in Heterogeneous Communities......Page 369
III. Constitutional Rights and Religious Tolerance......Page 373
IV. Constitutional Rights and Sexual Tolerance......Page 378
A. Scientific Knowledge......Page 380
B. Foreign Policy......Page 382
C. Democracy......Page 384
D. AIDS Policy......Page 385
VI. Religion and Traditionalism......Page 386
A. Progressivism and Traditionalism in the United States......Page 387
B. Progressivism and Traditionalism in Europe......Page 390
VII. Religion and Citizenship......Page 391
VIII. Religion and Morality......Page 392
A. Religion and War......Page 393
B. Religion and Capital Punishment......Page 396
C. Religion and Slavery......Page 397
D. Religion and Feminism......Page 398
E. Moral Behavior at the Micro Level......Page 402
F. Moral Behavior: Cross-National Evidence......Page 404
IX. Conclusions......Page 408
Fourteen: Building and Protecting Liberal Democracy......Page 412
I. Why Does Democracy Sometimes Fail?......Page 413
B. The Costs of Citizen Ignorance and Bias......Page 414
A. Heterogeneity......Page 416
B. Citizen Ignorance......Page 417
A. Heterogeneity......Page 418
A. Heterogeneity......Page 420
B. Citizen Ignorance......Page 421
V. The Threat to Liberalism......Page 423
VI. The Good Citizen......Page 426
VII. Too Hard on Religion?......Page 427
References......Page 431
Author Index......Page 449
Subject Index......Page 454