What are Morality Policies? The Politics of Values in a Post-Secular World

Abstract

This article critically reviews the literature on morality policies and the politics of values, focusing in particular on the question of what defines morality policies as a specific policy field. Drawing from both US American and European literature, it surveys to which extent morality policies can be understood as a particular form of contention over primary values, a way of framing, a cultural conflict, a specific type of politics, or a class of substantive policy issues. The article then develops a new approach that draws on political theory and pays particular attention to the role of religion, arguing that morality policies reflect deep divisions within modern societies over key principles of political liberalism.

How policymakers employ ethical frames to design and introduce new policies: the case of childhood vaccine mandates in Australia

“…Some scholars argue that some kinds of policies address ethical goals, obligations and prohibitions directly (Glick and Hutchinson, 1999;Permoser, 2019). Burlone and Richmond (2018) define 'morality policies' as addressing issues of first principle (hence not being about instrumental policy impacts), possessing technical simplicity, and being highly salient.…”

“…Burlone and Richmond (2018) define 'morality policies' as addressing issues of first principle (hence not being about instrumental policy impacts), possessing technical simplicity, and being highly salient. Such policies respond to deep cultural cleavages surrounding fundamental ethical obligations or prohibitions (for example, abortion, gay rights, assisted dying) and are often privy to conscience votes (Bacchi, 2007;Permoser, 2019). But it is also possible to consider 'morality' as pertaining to framing, rather than to specific policy types.…”

Who sees which political falsehoods as more acceptable and why: A new look at in-group loyalty and trustworthiness.

“…This suggests that the partisan leniency we explored may have been particularly robust if the issues we chose were related to participants’ own moral mandates. Future research should explore whether policy lies in support of less morally relevant issues (e.g., economic issues like tariff policies; Mooney, 2001; Permoser, 2019; Wendell & Tatalovich, 2021) or those that are framed in less morally relevant terms (Mucciaroni et al, 2019) would receive the same magnified partisan evaluations. This may depend on whether such falsehoods still signal trustworthy allegiance to a group that advances a morally laden agenda in other ways.…”

A Short Scale for Measuring Political Secularism

“…This is problematic, because politically secular views are believed to become more and more widespread in Europe and even in the United States, and because they represent a particularly disruptive type of active secularism. This is because they are conceptually linked to a host of polarizing “morality policies,” which pit religious views and actors against notions of individual freedom (Mourão Permoser 2019). If one wants to assess the alleged spread of politically secular views as well as their impact on politics, it is therefore desirable to have an instrument that is both reliable and valid and preferably comprises multiple indicators.…”