Why Religion Influences Politics More Now Than 50 Years Ago | Monica Duffy Toft | Big Think
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- Why Religion Influences Politics More Now Than 50 Years Ago
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Religion influences politics more now than it did 50 years ago. To help explain how we moved seemingly backward from global secularism to increased religious involvement in public policy, Professor of International Politics Monica Duffy Toft explains the threefold story of failed modernization, democratization, and globalization, and how they propelled religious figures and ideas into the political arena once again. Monica Duffy Toft's work at the Center for Strategic Studies is made possible through funding from the Charles Koch Foundation. The Charles Koch Foundation aims to further understanding of how US foreign policy affects American people and societal well-being. Through grants, events, and collaborative partnerships, the Foundation is working to stretch the boundaries of foreign policy research and debate by discussing ideas in strategy, trade, and diplomacy that often go unheeded in the US capital. For more information, visit charleskochfoundation.org.
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MONICA DUFFY TOFT:
Before joining The Fletcher School, Professor Monica Duffy Toft taught at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. While at Harvard, she directed the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs and was the assistant director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. She was educated at the University of Chicago (MA and PhD in political science) and at the University of California, Santa Barbara (BA in political science and Slavic languages and literature, summa cum laude). Prior to this, she spent four years in the United States Army as a Russian linguist. Monica’s areas of research include international security, ethnic and religious violence, civil wars and demography.
Her most recent books include: Securing the Peace (Princeton, 2011); Political Demography (Oxford, 2012); and God’s Century (Norton, 2012). In addition she has published numerous scholarly articles and editorials on civil wars, territory and nationalism, demography, and religion in global politics.
Monica is a research associate of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She is a supernumerary fellow at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, a Global Scholar of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Minorities at Risk Advisory Board and the Political Instability Task Force. In 2008 the Carnegie Foundation of New York named her a Carnegie Scholar for her research on religion and violence, in 2012 she was named a Fulbright scholar, and most recently served as the World Politics Fellow at Princeton University.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Monica Duffy Toft: So religion has become more influential in global politics, and it really started taking off in the 1970s, Whereas people today, if you read contemporary newspapers and magazines and journals and stuff, you would think that it all started in the post-9/11 era-that as a result of 9/11 people started noticing or thought that’s where it really took off, but it actually really started taking off in the 1970s. And there’s a threefold story to it.
The first is the failure of the postcolonial regimes in the 1960s and '70s. So you understand these are states that got independence after World War II and they were given a chance at sort of directing their states, as running their states. These were people-you could think about Gandhi and others who were educated in the West, go back to their countries and bring ideas, Western sort of ideas, out of the university systems-Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, Tufts-and tried to implement those ideas at home, and they failed.
And so by the 1960s and the 1970s you start seeing failed and failing states emerging and populations challenging their statesmen and saying, “Why is it you’re supposed to be the one providing for the basic goods and services for my society and for me, why are you failing?”
And so they started challenging political authorities and helping them to challenge them were church leaders and religious ideas. Because many religions are based on the idea of justice and equality, and there were some things that happened: in the 1960s the Catholic Church started talking about the equality of all people; all people deserve human dignity, not just Catholics.
Read the full transcript at bigthink.com/videos/monica-du...
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I have nothing but support for religious values - such as caring for the poor, the sick or the stranger - as part of an enlightened society. I do have a big problem with religious dogma being inserted into the political sphere or the insistence of a particular religion being politically instituted.
+susan price
Only 3% of the billions donated to religion are used for the betterment of humanity. It’s a complete waste.
religion also advocates for hanging homosexuals or people who engage in illicit sex not all but majority does
but yeah i agree church and state should be seperate
@@IamgladthatIamglad and how much gay people in the world choose your loss
@@SmackDabCola sorry I don't get u?
The day I gave up religion and politics, my life became peaceful.
Great just what we need, more religious maniacs in politics.
Certainly not.
atheistic populations is increasing so chill out
Seems like everyone in the comments section is united on this one thankfully.
We have enough manipulated facts. No need for manipulated beliefs!
Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you included those that doesnt understand english and cant use computer you get a completely different picture. Globally speaking we are the minority.
@@greenanubis sorry to burst your bubble but it's the majority.
Religious leaders wanted to help? Really? That statement alone disinclines me to take this video seriously. I would say most - not all, but certainly a lot - of religious leaders are hardly motivated by a desire to help. Religion is a business, nothing more, nothing less. An exploitive business that, then combined with political and economic power (eg. the republican party and big business) creates a perfect storm of power and influence. Like terrorists, they too make use of fear to herd people into the direction they want them to go. The video also speaks of failed states that gained independence from the Imperialists being dominated by religion. If that was entirely true, then why do we see the same rhetoric you see in Eg. Uganda uttered in the USA and Britain? It's not because the Ugandans saw their state failing. it's because the US and Britain exported (or left) their religious fundamentalists into these nations. Look it up. See how megachurches grew in Africa, and where most of them come from. Also, the regime changes happening in Iran was motivated because religious people and leaders saw their secular leaders failing? Really? There's this pesky little thing called history, and if you bother to read it, you find that the regime change that happened in Iran ain the 1970s had very little to do with that, and much to do with western powers interfering in much the same way they did in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya. That was hardly motivated by religion. Sure, for the people doing the actual fighting and dying, but not those who made use of them to effect regime change. Those flames were artificially fanned by the west, and now it's coming home to roost. No. Religion has power in this day and age because politicians saw an opening to exploit and made use of it, both domestically and internationally. Look at almost any US politician and tell me I''m wrong.
I was thinking the same thing too when she gave the example of Iran. Like how can someone claim that it was strictly by the influence of religion? Her arguments seem to ignore major factors of those changes in some regimes.
Video: thoughtful and objective treatment of sociological and historical realities
Comments: collective secular war cry
IMHO, "religion" and "politics" are different works with the same meaning. They are both systems of worship. One is worship, allegiance, and veneration of the state and the other worship, allegiance, and veneration of a deity or deities. They are both contentious and divisive. Both have blind followings. They both exercise great power, control, and influence over people. And, if you listen to people, they have very heated and "emotional" debates and arguments about who is right. They are the same thing.
There was a 5 minute + ad before this video. OVER 5 MINUTE ad? Are you serious TH-cam?
+renragged
If you have an iPhone, download Universally. No commercials and it’s free.
Anyone else catch the "Charles Koch Foundation" at the beginning?
When I say freedom I mean something much more important than the freedom to make money and spend it . Freedom of thought ,sexuality ,enquire , political and so on , those freedoms will be taken .
Politics is just a popularity game so religious actors may rise in democracies but the exclusionary nature of religion and group mentality does not leave this phenomenon sustaining.
Interesting talk
We've let religion take the helm in politics for generations and look where that has brought us...
We've let ourselves be engulfed in 30-something years of Cold MADness, look where that almost brought us
The best way forward is acceptance - accept that we are all intrinsically pieces of shit XP
"Professor of International Politics Monica Duffy Toft [from] the Center for Strategic Studies [which] is made possible through funding from the *Charles Koch Foundation"...* Is that the same Koch that owns every politician in Washington and who is now attempting to rewrite history?
Religion it self is politics..
well, thats depressing.
exit 1Ø1 very true!!
Poverty and suffering are fertile grounds for religion
A good analysis... but digital cassette tapes in the 1970s??? (3:50) Definitely not available at that time.
Mad Biker 3020 You did very well by spotting that inconsistent information. Wtf is wrong with Big Think to put videos on their channel??
If digital means - the data on the carrier made up from 1’s and 0’s - then Yes it IS true what she says.
Juan Aguire:
The Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) was a magnetic tape sound recording format introduced in late 1992; so any audio recorded to cassette in the 70s or 80s was definitely not digital.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Compact_Cassette
Mad Biker 3020 I read and do confirm too.
Amazing channel
it doesn't really answer why, it only states that it does so. so is it just as a back-lash from secular years?
भगवान से ही ज्यादा बड़ी कौनसी चीज है..? हमारे मन से हमने कभी यह प्रश्न पुछा नहीं। हमारे मन में बचपण से एक चीज का डर हमारे मां बाप ही घुसाड देते है, जो उनको भी पता नहीं होता ऐसी कोई चीज दुनिया में होती या नहीं..? जो अस्तीत्वमे होती नहीचसे मम बचपन से दिल मे बिठा देते हैं, जी से किसने भी सिध्द नहीं की वह जीच दुनिया मैं मौजूद हैं। वह चीज भगवान, ईश््र से बढ़ी है एक छोटी-सी चीज *डर*...! और यह डर तुम्हारा मरते तक पीछा करते रहता है कि जब तक इसकी खोज नहीं करते। आज दुनिया में दो जातीया को पता है कि दुनिया में ईश्वर नाम कि कोई चीज है, वे दो लोग हैं जागतीक स्तर से विद्वान एक बौद्ध और दुसरा ब्राम्हण ये दोनों लोग ईश्वर को मानते ही नही, इसी कारण वे प्रगती के राह पर है। इसी कारण ब्रामहण तुम्हे डराकश्र धमकाकर वोट मांगता है लक्षिणा मांगता है। IB,ED,CBI पीछे लगाकर मोदी गोदी भ्रष्टाचगरी नेता को डराकर लोकसभा में मेजिरिटी बढ़ाते जा रहा है। यह डर और ईश्वर का डर देश को कंगाल के ओर ले जा रहा है। जो विकास हुआ था उसपर पानी फेर दिया जा रहा है।
Quite the thesis... Hmm, this may have benefited from further propounding.
In the case of the US foreign policies, there were strategic meetings after the fall of the UDSSR on how to proceed internationally. The concensus back between 1989-92 which was put up on c-span an can be looked over there still, was that without the enemy image of the UDSSR there would be a chance for inner struggle, unrest and public disconnect with the nation. So it was 'decided' there and then that a new enemy image was needed and it was named 'Islam'. 911 was just a carriage for the policy makers in many ways they used for their agendas. One of the results, the understanding of religions, a process which was regularly mentioned in the 1990's disappeared from the newspapers.
That is one aspect additionally to what was mentioned here. I don't understand it as being appart from that.
As a result i think you could say the Abyss is looking back into us, as with any enemy you always need to get to know him, to understand him, so you would be able to defeat him. That then also results in taking on some of the values or at least them being reflected like a mirrow image in a pond within our societies. I don't think policy makers forthought all the consequences that would have. After all a religion is not quite the same as a political system.
Your wow maam
Keep up
Western religon and Eastern religon needs to be seperated on this topic , honest it makes no sense saying any follower of the two sides are basically the same ,crazy
For almost a century religious people have been outbreeding secular people, the latter have depended on constantly deconverting people from the rising mass of religious people. The rich secular educated upper class in many islamic countries 50 years ago had only 2 children while the poor highly religious uneducated masses still had 6-8 children per woman. The faithless have simply been swamped by demographic shifts. Unless irreligious people can create cultures that can have selfsustaining populations they are destined to become a historical curiosity.
Ok, I was following her until she said religions promote ideas of equality among people. Which religions is she talking about, exactly....?
Religion is the original form of politics, before mass media you could only believe what you heard, with mass media everyone's perspective can be incrementally updated. And anyone can sound scientifically convincing showing you only supporting evidence and Denying you the contrary.
Pretty sure there is something before religion
Religion, from Latin religo, strongly tied.
And it's all bad for us.
I hear a lot of claims with only a few anecdotes to back them up. Not a very convincing set either. It seems to assume the Pope and religious groups did not have a huge influence before the 60-70s while that is about laughable if you have studied world history. Even in the 30s-50s everything seems to revolve around religious influence.
ALL Governments should be secular, this is an absolute no brainer. I don't give a fuck if you're offended.
"digital" audio cassettes in the '70s???!!!
They prob were every expensive and rare
Also she mention Ghandi abd said he failed ? Is India not the largest democracy in the world now thanks to him ? , most christian countries are just in name only , because people are allowed to practice whatever religon they want freely , eg Europe , mom secular countries you have to PAY a TAX to practice your religon
Gary Watzittoyaa I guess the Koch bros think Ghandi failed because he wasn't a neoliberal
Gandhi didn't implemented Western ideas in India,he embraced what was already in there
Anindo De How do you know?? Were you there??
Cassette tapes are not digital!
Absolutely correct. Very few people had access to digital equipment in those days.
A couple of decades later there was a format called DCC or Digital Compact Cassette but there's no way that the tapes she is referring to were digitally recorded.
I guess this just underscores the need for secularists to make our voices heard. We know we are right, we should be proud to share our beliefs anywhere and everywhere.
Aaron Jodoin You keep your beliefs to yourself. I don't need them.
WeegeeSlayer yeah, just have fun in the box you constructed in your head
pokepersonal Sure thing. Have fun with the only life you'll ever get.
WeegeeSlayer you do realize that EVERYONE only has one life right?
Aaron Jodoin Yes, but an afterlife is unlikely. Though I do hope there's an afterlife, just not the Judeo-Christian or Islamic versions of an afterlife.
Just remember the best antidote to religion is NOT more religion but critical thinking. Religion is just a vast pile of woo thinking which another pile of woo thinking will not defeat. Teach your children how to think.
religious institutions will not lie down and leave us alone, even in secular nations the devoutly religious continue to seek and gain high political office.
The majority of humans are devoutly religious. There is only a small percentage of humans who are not religious.
Science has not killed god.
Religion has absolutely no place whatsoever in politics
_Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. _*_But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion._* -------*Steven Weinberg*
I'm think democracies tend to education and science . Really is hard to look at but the trend is to more enlightens no less.The fight is hard though and some setbacks have been the user, Iran, and The Trump genome a.
Religion has been "riding the back" of governments for thousands of years.
Revelation 17 & 18
"Babylon the Great" on the "Wild Beast."
Why the hell are you accepting guests from the Koch Foundation ?!
Religion is an option democracy isn't.
BECAUSE THE SECULAR WORLD IS NOT DOING A VERY GOOD JOB FOR NOW.
the Charles Koch foundation.. time to unsubscribe now.. Tell Ayn Rand I said hi.
religion should have nothing to do with politics,
00:00
Do they not know about editing or retakes
Fix the video
Give me a religious leader over a Trump any day of the week
Wow; not once she said 'activists'. Gotta respect that kinda commitment
Religion is not belong to politics
No insights here at all as to "why."
Google "Iran before the revolution" and make up your own mind on whether it was a good thing.
Was thinking the same. So the most important and significant thing about the Shah was his secularism? Maybe him being a dictator and put there by Britain and the US is more interesting... As most of the comment section already realized, this woman is a shill for the Koch-Brothers. Yes we need more religious nutjobs in the government, because they are usually the ones not very concerned about the material world, the enviroments state for example. Sounds like the right people for the Koch-Brothers to help gain power.
You know Google isn't an all-knowing oracle, right?
Shawn Ravenfire That's not what I said. It's an easy way to inform yourself on a subject that she touched on.
I've been there, there are Christian women and even Jewish women living there like everyone else. There are women who are C.E.O's at big companies. There is an equal pay for equal work in almost every position for both gender, &... Don't let the mass media fool you
Now it sounds you're polishing the truth to help your point. Also what the hell do you actually mean by "mass media"? It sounds like generalizing and then dismissing. As if your manipulative "mass media" were the only critics of what goes on in the middle east.
I am right you are wrong
Justice and equality in the same sentence as religion!? LOL
Religion and Politics are closely connected
Both are social systems designed to control large groups of victims.
Politics is not a dogma. It is a standardized system, that is adjusted to the current needs of a nation.
MetallicReg
To the rational mind that comment makes sense, but the human mind is not really rational and even a casual glance at politics shows it to be a mostly irrational activity. Emotions are exploited and only occasionally does pure reason hold sway. Politics is a broad brush activity that reaches down to the individual and makes him/her become part of the group. Tribalism. Religion is the same, it just started earlier than organized politics
+Mike Gardner - There is a biological background in tribalism, yes. But what I want to stress here, is, that politics is based on a negotiational ground. The moment when negotiations are being ignored long enough leads to turbulent revolutions.
+ed smith - Quote: _"It is a standardized system, that is adjusted to the current needs of a nation."_
Taxes are a part of the negotiated terms of the system and are used for the variable needs of the nation. Being part of the type of politics that we use right now, it is unwise to break a standard that is a commitment to the society you live in. This society gains all rights to punish you for your egocentric actions.
A superficial analysis. It fails to highlight the key part - that people actually are religious, and their religions are and always were claiming a place in the public square. It is the democratization that pushed these opinions onto the public sphere, and the decline of support of Western values amongst the elites helped this process.
Friends I am here to tell you that it is true. The cult of Dionysus is the true path to liberation. Lord Dionysus watches over us all with love and is the only one with the grace and power to pull your soul from the underworld. Was it not Ronnie James Dio who proclaimed "Ride the tiger, you can see his stripes but you know he's clean". It's all true, my friends. All true!
That could be Son Goku, too; beware of false prophets, for they cannot forecast the weather
Wow this lady is so off base. Is she really this naive.
I hate religion but 90% of what she is saying is BS
I swear i am done with damn channel if you keep giving spaces to corporate shills from the koch foundation. I love having different perspectives, but only so long as they arent paid to have there beliefs. This woman started her research looking for things to back up her beliefs rather than to openly look at the issue, a thing that all religious people have in common. While this is tolerable in private, dont bring it to a forum like big think were you are supposed to be an expert in what you are discussing.
Then the world is headed for disaster.
Wtf is she talking about,? None of the big 3 are based on or even include the concept of equality.Actually all three great women as property all through their holy texts
KC Atheist That my friend is how big think degrading people's intelligence. I think they have a serious agenda.
hahaha... wow... that was terrible. And I'm as atheist as they make them.
Africans/blacks and Carribeans are the most superstitious, religiously and bible thumpers in the world. The Christians churches from Mormonisms, adventist, Jehovah witness and all other denomination has attack Africans to follow and brainwashed them in the centuries of colonialism. They have Bombarded east- africans to combat the spread of the other ridiculous cult named Islam. So, from both sides of the fences, you have Islam and Christianity brainwashing and indoctrinated Africans to their cults. Africans doesn't need religion. It's need doctors, scientist, engineers, and it's own resources intact for Africans to build wealth. Religious has broken africans and the con artist priest are getting rich off of it. It's the longest running con job in the history of humanity. The selling of a product you can't see, touch or verify that it exist. A snake oil salesman dream product is "God". They get mad if you try to open their mind. They want to stay brainwashed and indoctrinated. They will kill for their fairytale sky daddy. Faith by definition is about believing in anything or everything without emperical evidence. Faith is the worst human trait. It requires no evidence. In that example; she believe trump was a good person despite the obvious flaws in his character. Faith; either from a religious perspective or a political perspective is ultimately false and dangerous. We as a society have to make decisions on facts and evidence based criteria.
I am an atheist in Kenya and I completely agree, though the secular ways are starting to spread more in my country and people are starting to live their lives in a more pragmatic way (due to modern western culture) there is still people like Somalis (who we are taking as refugees) and Ethiopians who come into our country and repopulate and start spreading Islam around us. I don't hate Somalis or Ethiopians I just think their beliefs will hold back our development or worse like a civil war or something, (pretty much what is going on in most Muslim countries)
Right after "religion became more influential in global politics after 1970" you should go and get rid of this professor title.
Just another fake scientist.
Why are you doing this to me?
Because people are afraid, knowing full well they cannot actually complete in a global society, so they fall back to imaginary protectors and tyranny to enforce their delusions on others. They pray to an all-powerful god, but then realize that god does nothing himself.