Bringing the State Back in Secularization: The Development of Laïcité in the French Third Republic (1875–1905)

Abstract

The secularization literature increasingly recognizes the role of historical state-building processes and the manifest agency of sociopolitical actors in shaping public secularity. Based on archival data from the French Third Republic, this article offers three contributions to the historicizing agenda. First, to better capture the contingent and agencydriven nature of secularization, it reoperationalizes the concepts of separation and regulation as contentious strategies of state-building used toward religious authority. Second, it identifies and exemplifies four interrelated yet uneven spheres in which secularization is prompted through governmental action: politico-institutional, socio-pedagogical, symbolic-ideological, and property-distributional. Third, it suggests going beyond viewing secularizing agents as disconnected elites operating independently of grassroots movements. The French case shows that the Republicans' engagement with the pressures of various class forces had a significant impact on their secularizing policies. The analysis advances the study of the mechanisms whereby state-building engenders and mediates secularization as a nonlinear and heterogeneous process.

Religious residue: The impact of childhood religious socialization on the religiosity of nones in France, Germany, Great Britain, and Sweden

“…If France, with its long tradition of laïcité (Peker, 2019) conforms to patterns found in other Catholic countries (Bréchon, 2011), one would expect low levels of religious residue and similarity between disaffiliates and lifelong nones.…”

“…This may be a result of either self‐selection, as nominal Catholics tend to remain affiliated and only the least religious disaffiliate (Wilkins‐Laflamme, 2016a ), or an indication of religious polarization consistent with disaffiliation as a wholesale rejection of religion (Ribberink et al., 2018 ). If France, with its long tradition of laïcité (Peker, 2019 ) conforms to patterns found in other Catholic countries (Bréchon, 2011 ), one would expect low levels of religious residue and similarity between disaffiliates and lifelong nones.…”

Secularization Theory’s Differentiation Problem: Revisiting the Historical Relationship between Differentiation and Religion

“…In particular, how is state expansion and control related to secularization? In at least some cases, the growth of state power seems to have played an important role in secularization (e.g., Peker 2019) and was wielded to bring about secularization as part of a conflict between status-seeking secularist groups and religious authorities (e.g., Smith 2003), but these points are obscured by the differentiation story's central emphasis.…”

The dejudicialization of religious freedom?

“…Yet, we should not assume this trend toward judicialization is permanent. Rather, JRF is akin to secularization: a trend that has advanced, but which is always subject to politics and contestation (Gill, 2008;Smith, 2003); whose perpetuation rests on institutional, political, and social foundations (Mayrl, 2016;Peker, 2019); and which is always reversible (Gorski, 2000;Saeed, 2017). If the politics of the judiciary changes, if institutional aspects of the courts shift, if social relationships are transformed, we might expect JRF to slow, or even reverse.…”