Secularization in Spain, Portugal and Greece

Abstract

The discussion of statist regimes of the right must turn on the same axis as discussion of statist regimes of the left: the monopoly of the means of power. By extension, this inevitably directs attention to the area of church-state relations. The state endeavours to include the church within its monopoly. However, it tries to do so at a point where the process of differentiation in the society at large gives leverage to the ancient symbolic tension between church and state, and allows it opportunity to express itself. Furthermore the lesion between church and state is exacerbated by the fact that the Roman Catholic church at large, in Europe and elsewhere, has largely loosed itself free from statist entanglements, and exercises an external pressure on the pace of internal developments. Indeed, ecclesiastical leaders can easily draw appropriate lessons from the debacles attending such entanglements, notably in France. A liberal regime becomes an acceptable option as compared with the fate awaiting the church under totalitarian regimes. The freedom of the spiritual arm is at least a possibility under liberal aegis, and the chief danger of liberalism is its tendency to offer opportunities for take-over by disciplined minorities.