Contenu du sommaire : Religion et politique

Analysis of the contemporary interaction between religion and politics in Spain allows one to temper excessively radical findings on the secularization of politics in that country. This tempering can be done from at least two perspectives. Inspired by classical institutional analysis, the first entails looking in detail at the relationship between religious and political actors. This leads one to stress the legitimizing role played by religious leaders during the political transition and the reproduction within the religious field of the limits of democratic consensus which, in particular, can be observed in the more anti-centralist territories. The second perspective enlarges the spectrum of this question by analyzing both the effects of Catholic belonging on political cultures and by promoting a flexible conceptualization of the ecclesiastical institution. The latter is necessary in order to grasp the multitude of structuring effects that Catholicism has upon the Spanish public sphere.

The analysis of the relations between the political and religious spheres conducts the researcher to three distinct, but complementary, levels of observation. Beyond the institutional and the individual and collective behaviour levels, he has to focus on the matricial structure (a kind of long term memory) of religion which maintains its effects despite its normative weakening. South european countries, which have different historical trajectories and existing configurations, share, form this point of view, a common heritage. The catholic church — and the orthodox church in Greece — had widely contributed to the constitution of the anthropological conception of politics and common wealth which prevails in those countries, and to the formation of the social link.

France shares an old Roman Catholic Tradition with the other Southern European countries but Greece. However France is strongly singular by the way State is separate from the Church in a manner very different from the USA and quite exceptionnal. "Laïcité" which is not just lay-secularism is a cardinal value as such and the Republic, symbol of the State is a kind of religion as such : a secular faith shared by all "good citizens " regardless of the Church they belong to. This is the result of a long historical evolution, the product of the French Nation-building process where a strong and diffenrenciated Nation-State took control over religions. Nowadays French exceptionnality is under the threat of both secularization and communautarianism.

Despite the undeniable social influence of Catholicism in Portugal, its power over political arenas has been limited. Divided and split since the 19th century between the secular desires of the republicans but also by Salazar 's attempt to instrumentalize religion, Catholicism in this country has never been able to build itself a political identity or, in particular, a party identity. The transition to democracy has only deepened this trend, aided and abetted by the fact that the Catholic religion has slowly but surely lost its grip over Portuguese society.

Behind the relationship between Hellenism and Christianity lies the content of a wider conflict between anthropocentrism and despotism. The Greek version of Christianity is opposed to the latin version (and in a way to the slavic one) due to the anthropocentric substrate bequeathed by the Hellenic cosmosystem. It was constituted as the ekklesia of the demos of the faithful at a time when the non-feudal latin church became a sacredotal body. The passage from a European world to one of anthropcentrism forced the Church to undertake substantial adaptation. This entailed taking on the anthropocentrique acquis which, however, was yet to attain its internal coherence and own space, much of which continued to be confused with the secular world. The eventual collapse of the Helenic cosmosystem duringt the 19th century and the creation of the neohellenic nation state meant that the Chruch became identified with its clergy without really being able to take up a prominent place in the public sphere and in civil society. Nevertheless, the Hellenic paradigm provides a framework for comparison and solid reflection upon the place of religion in contemporary societies and a perspective that is well adapted to the anthropocentric state of the modern cosmosystem

Languedoc-Roussillon is one of the French regions where the scores of extreme-right were highest. It is from now on a tradition registered on a score of years, one period which is also marked by deep demographic upheavals. Behind the establishment of this political stream, the political forces had knew internal recombinings of variable width. The left, which had given its name to the Red South, is now closed to its national average, losing significant electoral bastions, whereas it had conquered almost the totality of the seats of deputies, in 1997. The Right, conser- vaticve and liberal parties, marked on a regional scale by a strategy of alliance with the extreme- right, reconquered a majority of seats, while being based on the birth of the UMP. Nothing states however that the power struggle resulting from these two polls, presidential and legislative, will have one duration larger than the two preceding photographs of political Languedoc, white in 1993, pink-red in 1997. A dubious recombining...