Ani Sarkissian on Religious Liberty in the Post-Soviet World

tonygill — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:00:46 +0000

Help us get to 400 likes by May on our Facebook Fan Page, where you can see your host — Tony Gill — wearing a traditional Kyrgyzstan hat whilst in his normal cowboy garb!

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 heralded what many thought would be a new era of liberty in a region of the world that has known little freedom for most of its history. However, many of the new regimes that emerged from the Soviet rubble have slipped back into autocracy. We review these political developments and what it has meant for religious freedom in the region with Prof. Ani Sarkissian, an assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University. Our discussion begins with some reflections on the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the decade of optimism that it ushered in to the former Soviet world. Prof. Sarkissian then discusses the “creeping authoritarianism” that has beset the region over the past decade or so, focusing on Russia as a classic example of what is occuring in other regions while also highlighting some of the differences in regime types that have emerged. Ani mentions that while most scholars have spent time examining how elections and party systems have been manipulated by aspiring autocrats, looking at how groups in civil society — namely religious organizations — are treated is also a first indication of where the government is headed. She reviews four different patterns of church-state relations that impact religious liberty: 1) states repressing all religions; 2) states repressing all but one faith tradition; 3) states repressing some religions but not others; and 4) states who appear to have wide-ranging religious freedom. To explain why such variation has emerged, Ani focuses both on factors affecting the religious composition of society, the nature of the authoritarian regime, and the historical church-state relations that existed prior to the Soviet Union and that emerged during Soviet domination. She reviews a typical country in each of these categories letting us know what is happening in countries such as Uzbekistan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Albania. Tony notes that he recently met with a Kyrgy delegation interested in implementing religious freedom policies and that he was given a traditional Kyrgy hat that he has to this day. (A picture of Tony wearing this hat with his favorite Western waistcoat can be viewed on our Facebook Fan Page.) We finish with Ani’s thoughts about the future of the region and whether there is reason for optimism or pessimism. Recorded: March 6, 2013.

Research On Religion » competitive authoritarianism

Ani Sarkissian on Religious Liberty in the Post-Soviet World