Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare: Associational Life and Religion in Contemporary Eastern Europe [1st ed.] 9783030447069, 9783030447076

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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN RELIGION, POLITICS, AND POLICY

Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare Associational Life and Religion in Contemporary Eastern Europe

Edited by Miguel Glatzer Paul Christopher Manuel

Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy

Series Editor Mark J. Rozell Schar School of Policy and Government George Mason University Arlington, VA, USA

This series originated under the co-editorship of the late Ted Jelen and Mark J. Rozell. A generation ago, many social scientists regarded religion as an anachronism, whose social, economic, and political importance would inevitably wane and disappear in the face of the inexorable forces of modernity. Of course, nothing of the sort has occurred; indeed, the public role of religion is resurgent in US domestic politics, in other nations, and in the international arena. Today, religion is widely acknowledged to be a key variable in candidate nominations, platforms, and elections; it is recognized as a major influence on domestic and foreign policies. National religious movements as diverse as the Christian Right in the United States and the Taliban in Afghanistan are important factors in the internal politics of particular nations. Moreover, such transnational religious actors as Al-Qaida, Falun Gong, and the Vatican have had important effects on the politics and policies of nations around the world. Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy serves a growing niche in the discipline of political science. This subfield has proliferated rapidly during the past two decades, and has generated an enormous amount of scholarly studies and journalistic coverage. Five years ago, the journal Politics and Religion was created; in addition, works relating to religion and politics have been the subject of many articles in more general academic journals. The number of books and monographs on religion and politics has increased tremendously. In the past, many social scientists dismissed religion as a key variable in politics and government. This series casts a broad net over the subfield, providing opportunities for scholars at all levels to publish their works with Palgrave. The series publishes monographs in all subfields of political science, including American Politics, Public Policy, Public Law, Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Political Theory. The principal focus of the series is the public role of religion. “Religion” is construed broadly to include public opinion, religious institutions, and the legal frameworks under which religious politics are practiced. The “dependent variable” in which we are interested is politics, defined broadly to include analyses of the public sources and consequences of religious belief and behavior. These would include matters of public policy, as well as variations in the practice of political life. We welcome a diverse range of methodological perspectives, provided that the approaches taken are intellectually rigorous. The series does not deal with works of theology, in that arguments about the validity or utility of religious beliefs are not a part of the series focus. Similarly, the authors of works about the private or personal consequences of religious belief and behavior, such as personal happiness, mental health, or family dysfunction, should seek other outlets for their writings. Although historical perspectives can often illuminate our understanding of modern political phenomena, our focus in the Religion, Politics, and Policy series is on the relationship between the sacred and the political in contemporary societies.

More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14594

Miguel Glatzer · Paul Christopher Manuel Editors

Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare Associational Life and Religion in Contemporary Eastern Europe

Editors Miguel Glatzer La Salle University Philadelphia, PA, USA

Paul Christopher Manuel American University Washington, DC, USA

Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy ISBN 978-3-030-44706-9 ISBN 978-3-030-44707-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44707-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover image: © Ayhan Altun/Moment/Getty Image This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Praise for Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare

“I welcome a further volume from Miguel Glatzer and Paul Manuel on religion and welfare in Europe. The emphasis this time is on a range of post-communist countries: some Orthodox, some Catholic and some markedly secular. What contributions do the churches make to the delivery of welfare in these very varied contexts? And—more profoundly— what does this tell us about the evolving place of religion in this part of the world?” —Grace Davie, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Exeter, UK “Following their focus on Western Europe in an earlier volume, Glatzer and Manuel turn their attention to Post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe. This fascinating and illuminating volume brings together both country and theoretical experts, providing a comprehensive examination of how religious organizations can contribute to welfare services under novel political regimes which, at least theoretically, provide much greater freedom of religion than in the immediate past. A must-read for anyone interested in the current roles of religion and civil society in post-Communist Europe.” —Jeffrey Haynes, Professor & Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion, Conflict and Cooperation, London Metropolitan University, UK

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PRAISE FOR FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS AND SOCIAL WELFARE

“An excellent volume that not only deals with faith-based organizations and their role in society, but challenges deep-seated assumptions about secularization, including by showing how Eastern European churches became more involved in the shaping of local democracies than their Western counterparts.” —Lucian Turcescu, Professor and Graduate Program Director, Department of Theological Studies, Concordia University, Canada “This authoritative text is of great importance as it explores key issues, offers insights and opens avenues for further research on the provision of social welfare services by faith-based organizations in post-communist Eastern Europe. This part of the world tends to be examined through a lens that is derived from Western European experiences and notions of secularization, modernization and democratization. The editors and authors of the volume explore the relationships between religion, democracy and social welfare during Eastern Europe’s unique historical, political and socioeconomic trajectories in its multifaceted transition to a capitalist market-based system. Their insights make important contributions on topics of even greater significance, including the intertwined relationships between religion, democracy, the welfare state and social policy, and the economic marketplace.” —Lina Molokotos-Liederman, Research Fellow, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, UK & Affiliated Researcher, Woolf Institute, Cambridge, UK “Where previous work on religion in Eastern Europe often emphasized conflict and competition between the mainline Church or Churches and the secular state, this volume, ably edited by Miguel Glatzer and Paul Manuel, offers something new, placing its stress rather on the engagement of Churches in charity, including collaboration with state authorities in joint social programs. Coverage includes both Orthodox societies (Russia, Ukraine, Romania) and predominantly Catholic societies (such as Poland and Croatia, among others), as well as societies with large numbers of religiously unaffiliated (specifically Estonia and the Czech Republic). There is much to learn from this innovative book, which any serious university library should acquire.” —Sabrina P. Ramet, Professor of Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

PRAISE FOR FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS AND SOCIAL WELFARE

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“The book is a significant contribution to political science analyses of religion and social welfare. It casts a wide net over the entangled dynamics of religion and social welfare in nine East-Central-European countries in a manner that resists generalization. Drawing on analyses of the way religious organizations address various forms of social distress, this fine collection of articles underscores the pressing issue of social welfare in such an intricate religious landscape.” —Detelina Tocheva, Research Fellow, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France “By looking at the role of religion for the provision of welfare and associational life, the volume addresses crucial topics in contemporary Eastern Europe in great detail. The authors in the volume train their eyes on emphasizing the nuances between the states and religions in Eastern Europe. To sum up, it is fair to say that the volume contributes substantially to our understanding of religion in its relation to politics and society in these societies.” —Tobias Köllner, University of Witten-Herdecke, Germany

What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him? And if a brother or sister be naked, and want daily food: And one of you say to them: Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit? So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself. —James 2: 14–17, Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)

Foreword

This volume is focused analytically on the role of religious actors in the provision of social services in postcommunist Eastern Europe. However, the volume also draws our attention to a series of very important, much broader questions. The first of those question is what is Europe?, particularly in the context of the secularization dynamics that have purportedly transformed the continent over the last century or so. Confident assertions concerning the steady and irreversible decline of religious belief, practice, and salience in Europe have been myopically based on very limited presumptions of which set of countries count as “Europe,” in the collective sense. But Paris is not Warsaw; Amsterdam is not Bucharest; London is not Kiev. And building on what should be an obvious observation, this volume offers a very welcome reminder that assessments of the social and political role of religion in Europe can look very different, indeed, when the full complexity and diversity of the continent is explicitly (and appropriately) taken into account. Second, what is religion? For far too long and in far too many contexts, much of social science treated the phenomenon of religion in an overly limited fashion. To be sure, operationalizing religion as a series of discrete beliefs or practices and then testing the correlation of those factors with political preferences and modes of political participation can be one useful method for illuminating the political and social role of “religion” in a given national or continental context. But the contributors to this volume show that this traditional approach is not nearly the only, or often even the

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FOREWORD

most appropriate, method for assessing religion’s role in politics. Yes, religion is expressed through belief and practice. But religion can also serve as a foundational element of national identity, defining what is possible or probable in a given polity and shaping the forms and manner of policymaking and partisan competition. At the same time, religion can also serve as the grounding of significant institutional actors in a country’s (or continent’s) social and political life. So, how significant a political actor is religion in our contemporary world? The answer provided in this volume is that religion, understood properly, remains a central political force on the European continent, the setting where the marginalization of religion is supposed to have been most advanced. Religion’s role in establishing the social and cultural contexts in which policy-making takes place can apparently still be quite foundational and consequential. And religion’s day-to-day centrality to the institutional provision of politically weighted social services remains undeniable today and quite unlikely to recede meaningfully in the foreseeable future. These kinds of structural roles may be particularly significant in specific places like Poland, Romania, or Ukraine. But this volume makes the more generally applicable argument that religion remains a complex and multifaceted aspect of individual and social life in a wide variety of national settings, and that therefore religion continues to play a deeply significant institutional role in an equally wide variety of political contexts. In light of this set of enduring relationships, the volume advises, our analytical treatments of religion’s significance in contemporary Europe (or elsewhere) must be similarly based on complexity and nuance and be similarly focused on institutional factors. What all this means for the consolidation of democracy in postcommunist Europe is perhaps the most important and contested question raised in this volume. Yes, many religious actors and religious institutions in Eastern Europe have aligned themselves with socially conservative, right-wing and at times anti-democratic forces in the postcommunist era. And, yes, these alliances might mean that religion poses a threat to democratization, and that secularization ought to be adopted as a political goal of postcommunist democracies, in addition to being acknowledged as a historical dynamic within which those democracies were born. Alternatively, however, religion’s institutional role in service provision and its social grounding of interest representation might also be seen as signs of the relative health of these democratic polities. On

FOREWORD

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this reading, the far-reaching participation of religious actors in public life may be an acceptable way in which observant populations and embedded institutions, regardless of their partisan leanings, are able to carve out meaningful participation in twenty-first-century European democracy. Or not. And that is why this basic question concerning the relationship between religion and democracy in Eastern Europe may well be the most important and portentous of the many provocative questions raised in this volume. However, what the volume shows, as a whole, is that this relationship between religion and democracy can only be appropriately addressed if we have first accommodated ourselves to broader conceptualizations of what constitutes “Europe,” what counts as “religion,” and what methodologies are proper for most meaningfully assessing the role that the latter plays in the former. The editors and contributors of this valuable volume offer not only detailed and specific analyses of these important relationships in individual national contexts. The editors and contributors also invite us to perform the essential definitional and categorical tasks that provide the appropriate methodological grounding for these national analyses, at the same time as they grant those analyses broad, comparative significance. Spring 2020

Timothy A. Byrnes Colgate University Hamilton, NY, USA

Timothy A. Byrnes is the Charles A. Dana professor of political science at Colgate University (USA).

Preface: Towards an Understanding of the Role of Religion in the Delivery of Social Welfare in Contemporary Eastern Europe

This second volume in our series on faith-based organizations and social welfare in Europe extends the same theoretical concerns about Western Europe to postcommunist Eastern Europe. Like our first volume, published in 2019, Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare: Associational Life and Religion in Contemporary Western Europe (Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy), this volume seeks to understand the role and function of religious-based organizations in strengthening associational life through the provision of social services, thereby legitimizing a new role for faith in the formerly secular public sphere. Specifically, we explore how a church, in a postcommunist setting, during periods of economic growth and recession in the wake of transitions to capitalism, and with varied numbers of adherents, might contribute to welfare services in a new political regime with freedom of religion. Put another way, based on available data, what new pressures would be placed on the secular welfare state if religious organizations (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, others) simply stopped offering their services? What does the available data indicate? As such, the chapters in this volume will investigate the role played by faith-based organizations in providing social services and advocating for social policy during the transition to capitalism and across periods of economic growth and crisis. Examining the “welfare role” of the church as well as varying trends in church membership, the chapters will also

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PREFACE: TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE ROLE OF …

shed light on the ways in which religion has contributed to the deepening of democracy. Throughout, the volume invites social scientists to consider the ongoing role of faith-based organizations in postcommunist civil society. We recognize that this faith-based activity varies across countries and over time and have asked each author to carefully discuss the unique historical trajectories and evolving state–church relationships characteristic of their case-study. As was the case in the first volume, this volume challenges social scientists to nuance their understanding of how secularization is changing Europe. It asks them to consider the ongoing role of faith-based organizations in strengthening associational life, thereby promoting democracy (although we recognize that in some cases churches have allied themselves with authoritarian parties and illiberal regimes). Throughout, the volume seeks to shed light on the question of how much faith-based organizations supports the poor and marginalized in each case and poses the counterfactual question of what new pressures would be brought to bear on the welfare state system if these faith-based organizations ceased to exist. We are less interested in why people volunteer their services (arguably, an interesting question in itself), and more focused on what difference (if any) the ongoing role of faith-based organizations makes in contemporary European associational life. We contend that it’s a question worth studying. Philadelphia, PA, USA Washington, DC, USA

Miguel Glatzer Paul Christopher Manuel

Acknowledgments

Miguel Glatzer and Paul Manuel first developed the idea for this series of volumes on faith-based organizations and social welfare at the July 2015 Annual Meeting of the Council for European Studies at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), in Paris, France. They wondered if social scientists should move beyond the lens normally applied to the question of Catholicism in contemporary Europe (i.e., it is a dying, anti-modern, anti-rational, conservative institution) and instead consider how its vital societal contributions are reflective of its institutional mission and serve as a strategy for institutional survival. Glatzer and Manuel subsequently developed this concept at other scholarly conferences in Europe and the United States and have invited other colleagues also interested in these questions to participate in this series. The following chapters examine how religious groups have responded to life in postcommunist Europe and offer preliminary assessment as to whether or not religion may remain a force in East European associational life in the future. There are many people who made this volume possible. We are especially thankful to Michelle Chen and Rebecca Roberts at Palgrave Macmillan, as well as to Mark Rozell, the series editor at Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy. We are indebted to the anonymous reviewers of the original proposal for the book for their very useful comments. As always, we are indebted to our families for their love and their ongoing support of our work. Miguel Glatzer thanks his partner

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Jessica McDonald. Paul Manuel thanks his wife Anne Marie and his daughters Maria Teresa (19) and Rosa Caterina (18). We dedicate this work to them. Philadelphia, PA, USA Washington, DC, USA Spring 2020

Miguel Glatzer Paul Christopher Manuel

Contents

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2

Religion, Faith-Based Organizations, and Welfare Delivery in Contemporary Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the Volume Miguel Glatzer and Paul Christopher Manuel Religion, Civil Society, and the State: Dynamics in Eastern Europe Viktor Poletko

Part I

1

13

Majority Orthodox Countries

3

Faith-Based Welfare Provision in Russia Daniel Schulte and Linda Cook

4

The Place of the Church in the Romanian Public Sphere: From Charitable Entrepreneur to Political Agent Bogdan Mihai Radu

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CONTENTS

5

In Times of Crisis: Faith-Based Social Engagement and Religious Contestations in Ukraine Since Maidan 2013–2014 Olena Bogdan, Denys Brylov, and Tetiana Kalenychenko

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Part II Majority Roman Catholic Countries 6

God’s Backyard: Politics and the Catholic Church in Poland Dawid Tatarczyk

7

Church and Welfare State in Croatia Dinka Marinovi´c Jerolimov and Nikolina Hazdovac Baji´c

8

Religion, Civil Society, and Charitable Activity in Slovenia Igor Bahovec

9

Faith Based Organizations in Hungary András Máté-Tóth and Tamás Szilágyi

Part III

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11

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129

159

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Countries with Large Numbers of Religiously Unaffiliated

Religion and Welfare in a Secular Society: The Case of Estonia Ringo Ringvee

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Irreplaceable Church Welfare in the Least Religious Country: The Case of the Czech Republic Zdenˇek R. Nešpor and Dana Hamplová

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Index

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About the Editors

Miguel Glatzer is associate professor of political science and director of the Leadership and Global Understanding Program at La Salle University. In addition to journal articles and book chapters, his publications include Globalization and the Future of the Welfare State (2005, edited with Dietrich Rueschemeyer), Portugal: Strategic Options in a European Context (2003, edited with Fátima Monteiro, José Tavares, and Angelo Cardoso) and Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare: Associational Life and Religion in Contemporary Western Europe (2019, edited with Paul Christopher Manuel). His current research focuses on social policy, labor market policy, the European sovereign debt crisis, financial literacy, and immigration. He holds a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. Paul Christopher Manuel is the Hurst senior professorial lecturer and distinguished scholar in residence in the department of government in the School of Public Affairs at American University. He is also a research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University and a local affiliate at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University, where he co-chaired the Iberian Studies Group. His research interests address comparative democratization, comparative public policy, and the relationship between religion and politics. Manuel has authored or co-authored ten books and numerous articles. He holds an M.T.S. from Boston College (Weston Jesuit School of Theology) and a Ph.D. in government from Georgetown University. xxi

Contributors

Igor Bahovec is assistant professor of the sociology of religion at the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). Nikolina Hazdovac Baji´c is researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar (Croatia). Olena Bogdan is associate professor of sociology at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine). Denys Brylov is associate professor of theology and religious studies at the National Pedagogical M. P. Drahomanov University of Kyiv (Ukraine). Linda Cook is professor of political science and slavic studies at Brown University (USA). Dana Hamplová is associate professor of sociology at Charles University in Prague and a researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic). Dinka Marinovi´c Jerolimov is director of the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb (Croatia). Tetiana Kalenychenko holds a Ph.D. in religion from the National Pedagogical M. P. Drahomanov University of Kyiv and is a journalist at the religious information service of Ukraine.

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CONTRIBUTORS

András Máté-Tóth is professor of the study of religions at the University of Szeged (Hungary). Zdenˇek R. Nešpor is associate professor of sociology at Charles University in Prague and a researcher at the Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic). Viktor Poletko is assistant professor of philosophy and theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University (Ukraine). Bogdan Mihai Radu is director of the Center for International Studies at Babes-Bolyai University (Romania). Ringo Ringvee is advisor in the Religious Affairs Department of the Estonian Ministry of the Interior, and is a professor of comparative religion at the Institute of Theology of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church (Estonia). Daniel Schulte is a Ph.D. candidate in comparative politics and international relations at Brown University (USA). Tamás Szilágyi is lecturer at the Gál Ferenc Theological College and in the department of the Scientific Study of Religions at the University of Szeged (Hungary). Dawid Tatarczyk is assistant professor of political science at Albion College (USA).

List of Figures

Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

1.1 3.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 4.3

Fig. 4.4 Fig. 5.1 Fig. 5.2 Fig. 5.3

Fig. 5.4 Fig. 5.5 Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig. Fig.

6.1 6.2 7.1 7.2 8.1 8.2 10.1

Four dimensions of comparative inquiry Religious demographic change, Russia, 1991–2015 Religious self-affiliation, Russia, 2017 Funding sources for Miloserdtsie Proportion of religious people—EU countries Confidence in the church—EU countries Proportion of religious people—Orthodox majority countries Confidence in the church—Orthodox majority countries Religious affiliation in Ukraine, January 2019 Number of Christian communities (registered and active) in Ukraine, January 2019 Number of religious communities (registered and active) in Ukraine (Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, New Religions, and Religious Movements), January 2019 Orthodox affiliations in Ukraine (percent among the Orthodox), January 2019 Dynamics of trust towards Church as an institution, Ukraine, 2000–2019 Change in religious affiliation in Poland, 1995–2018 Religious affiliation in Poland, 2018 Change in religious affiliation in Croatia, 1953–2011 Individual religiosity in Croatia, 2018 Religious affiliation in Slovenia, 2017 Change in religious affiliation in Slovenia, 1992–2017 Change in religious affiliation in Estonia according to the population censuses of 1922, 1934, 2000 and 2011

3 41 43 47 72 73 74 74 82 83

83 95 97 112 113 135 139 160 162 207

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LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 10.2 Fig. 11.1 Fig. 11.2 Fig. 11.3

Religious affiliation in Estonia, 2011 Change in religious affiliation in the Czech Republic, 1991–2011 Religious affiliation in the Czech Republic, 2011 Agreement with the statement that “churches are useful”

208 224 225 232

List of Tables

Table 1.1 Table 1.2 Table 1.3

Table 1.4 Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 4.1 Table 5.1 Table 9.1 Table 9.2 Table 9.3 Table 9.4

Religious landscape of Central and Eastern Europe (Percentage who identify as…) Percentage of adults describing themselves as Orthodox Christian Percentage in Eastern Europe see their countries as more religious today than in 1970s and 1980s (Percentage who say…) Which is more important? (Percentage of respondents, in 2009, who prefer…) Religious/morality survey responses in Russia, 2017 Officially reported church social welfare programs/initiatives, 2019 Citizen perceptions of the Russian Orthodox Church, 2017 Religiosity in Romania, 1990–2018 Trust towards the church compared to other institutions in Ukraine, March 2019 Membership of the main churches in Hungary The proportion of religious activities in the nonprofit sector, 1993–1999 The proportion of religious activities in the nonprofit sector, 2000–2009 The proportion of religious activities in the nonprofit sector, 2010–2017

4 5

5 8 43 46 51 70 96 179 184 184 184

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 9.5 Table 9.6

The income 1993–2000, The income 2010–2017,

of religious actors in the nonprofit sector, in Million HUF of religious actors in the nonprofit sector, in Million HUF

185 185

CHAPTER 1

Religion, Faith-Based Organizations, and Welfare Delivery in Contemporary Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the Volume Miguel Glatzer and Paul Christopher Manuel

As was the case with our first volume in this series, Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare: Associational Life and Religion in Contemporary Western Europe, the chapters in this volume seek to understand the role and function of religious-based organizations in Eastern Europe.1 They ponder how these organizations may strengthen associational life through the provision of social services, thereby legitimizing a new role for faith in the formerly secular public sphere. Specifically, this volume examines how the church, in a post-communist setting, during periods of economic growth and recession in the wake of transitions to capitalism,

M. Glatzer (B) La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA, USA e-mail: [email protected] P. C. Manuel American University, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s) 2020 M. Glatzer and P. C. Manuel (eds.), Faith-Based Organizations and Social Welfare, Palgrave Studies in Religion, Politics, and Policy, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44707-6_1

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M. GLATZER AND P. C. MANUEL

and with varied numbers of adherents, contributes to welfare services in new political regimes with freedom of religion. Examining the “welfare role” of the church as well as varying trends in church membership, the chapters also shed light on the ways in which religion has contributed to the deepening of democracy or, in some cases, to its erosion. Faith-based organizations and activity vary across countries and over time, reflecting distinct historical trajectories and evolving state–church relationships. As was the case with our first volume in this series, this volume challenges social scientists to take a nuanced approach to how secularization is changing Europe. It asks them to consider the ways in which faith-based organizations strengthen associational life, thereby promoting democracy (although we recognize that in some cases churches have allied themselves with authoritarian parties and illiberal regimes). Throughout, the volume seeks to shed light on the question of how much faith-based organizations support the poor and marginalized. Based on available data, each chapter asks which new pressures would be placed on the secular welfare state if religious organizations (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim) simply stopped offering their services.

Conceptualizing Variation in Contemporary Eastern Europe This volume addresses the role and function of religious-based organizations in strengthening associational life in East Europe. As we gaze upon contemporary Eastern Europe in 2020, we find a complex range of cultural, political, and religious activities at the grassroots level of civil society. This activity calls out for serious scholarly attention. This volume takes up that call as it seeks to capture the rich, lived reality of religion and politics, as well as faith and culture. It examines nine East European cases (Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Estonia) selected to maximize variation along four dimensions: type of religious marketplace, level of democratization, welfare state type, and economic performance/preference for communism in the recent past (see Fig. 1.1). First Comparative Dimension: Religious Marketplace: As the tables below indicate, Eastern European countries exhibit marked variation in religious affiliation and the religious make-up of their societies. Adapting the theoretical model developed by Ted Gerard Jelen and Clyde Wilcox,2 we can meaningfully classify our various case-studies in terms of distinct

1

RELIGION, FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS, AND WELFARE DELIVERY …

FREE: Estonia, Croaa, Czech Republic, Slovenia

3

LIMITED: Estonia, Croaa, Czech Republic, Poland

BACKSLIDER: Poland

SMALL BALANCED: Romania, Russia

PARTLY FREE:Hungary, Ukraine

LARGE BALANCEDl: Hungary, Slovenia

NOT FREE: Russia

TRUNCATED: Ukraine

LEVEL OF DEMOCRATIZATION

TYPE OF WELFARE STATE

FOUR DIMENSIONS OF COMPARATIVE INQUIRY ORTHODOX DOMINANCE: Romania, Russia, Ukraine CATHOLIC DOMINANCE: Croaa, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia

BETTER IN 2009: Estonia, Croaa, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia BETTER UNDER COMMUNISM: Hungary, Russia, Ukraine

HIGH UNAFFILIATED: Estonia, Czech Republic

TYPE OF RELIGIOUS MARKETPLACE

PEOPLE BETTER OFF IN 2009 OR UNDER COMMUNISM

Fig. 1.1 Four dimensions of comparative inquiry (Source Freedom House, 2019, Freedom in the World, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedomworld/freedom-world-2019/democracy-in-retreat; International Labour Organization, Social Security System of Ukraine in 2014–2015 and Beyond: Towards Effective Social Protection Floors, http://www.un.org.ua/images/documents/ 4522/wcms_504529.pdf; Pew Research Center, “End of Communism Cheered but Now with More Reservations,” November 2, 2009, https://www.pew research.org/global/2009/11/02/end-of-communism-cheered-but-now-withmore-reservations/; Pew Research Center, “Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe,” May 10, 2017, https://www.pew forum.org/2017/05/10/religious-belief-and-national-belonging-in-central-andeastern-europe/; World Bank, EU Regular Economic Report 2: Sustaining Recovery, Improving Living Standards, 2015, http://documents.worldbank. org/curated/en/312771468178188378/pdf/102089-REVISED-WP-PUB LIC-Box394828B-151217-WorldBank-Brochure-LD-DEF1.pdf; World Bank, Towards More Effective Social Assistance in Russia: An Update of the System Performance Considering New National Target of Halving Poverty by 2024, 2019, http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/391591564381077495/ pdf/Strengthening-Social-Protection-Towards-more-effective-social-assistancein-Russia-An-update-of-the-system-performance-considering-new-national-tar get-of-halving-poverty-by-2024.pdf)

forms of religious marketplaces, or societies. Three of the cases can be classified as societies dominated by an Orthodox religious tradition: Russia, Ukraine, and Romania; four cases can be classified as societies dominated by a Roman Catholic religious tradition: Poland, Croatia, Hungary,

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and Slovenia.3 The remaining two countries constitute cases of societies with large numbers of unaffiliated: Estonia and the Czech Republic (see Table 1.1). Although the Czech Republic is often considered the most secular country in Europe, faith-based organizations still play important roles there. It is important to note that many, though not all, of the countries in our volume have seen a revival of religious affiliation since the end of communism (for data on the religious revival in Eastern Europe, see Tables 1.2 and 1.3). Table 1.1 Religious landscape of Central and Eastern Europe (Percentage who identify as…) Orthodox Christian Orthodox majority Moldova 92% Greece 90 Armenia 89 Georgia 89 Serbia 88 Romania 86 Ukraine 78 Bulgaria 75 Belarus 73 Russia 71 Catholic majority Poland 1% Croatia 4 Lithuania 3 Hungary