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Within the growing literature on religion and politics, the role of faith in political parties remains one of the field’s most controversial questions. “Religious parties” are often understood either as the political arms of religious organizations or as vehicles for the instrumentalization of religion. In both popular discourse and academic research, they therefore tend to carry negative connotations and are frequently associated with polarization, exclusion, and democratic backsliding.
Yet other studies portray religious parties as political actors that articulate deeply felt frustrations arising from poverty, inequality, migration, displacement, cultural marginalization, and the failures of established institutions. They may represent constituencies bound not only by material grievances but also by moral commitments, collective identities, and faith-based beliefs. Even when their democratic credentials are questioned, they are seen as genuine mobilizers and remain important political actors because of their ability to translate these grievances and commitments into political claims.
Overall, the political trajectories attributed to religious parties remain deeply contradictory. Some religious parties are portrayed as democratizers or facilitators of authoritarian capture, as illustrated by the AKP in Turkey and the BJP in India. By contrast, scholarship on Christian democracy points to their compatibility with democracy and even to their role in democratic socialization, particularly in post-authoritarian contexts.
Given the contradictory depictions and findings in the existing literature, this panel begins from the premise that debates regarding religious parties remain unresolved partly because the concept of the “religious party” is itself inadequately defined. Religious parties are often approached through essentialist assumptions and a rigid secular–religious divide, despite the diversity of religious worldviews and their differing relationships to pluralism, liberal democracy, and human rights. The panel therefore seeks to develop more precise conceptual and analytical tools for understanding the diverse and often contradictory relationships between religion and political parties. It welcomes submissions ranging from single-case studies of religiously oriented political parties across different regions to comparative analyses and theoretically driven reflections.