Religion and Nation-Building in Post-Communist and Post-Socialist Countries

• In Event: Religious Nationalism (Pre-Recorded)

Abstract

The collapse of the communist and socialist regimes in Eastern Europe has led to a widespread anxiety over the identity of one's self and that of one's group. Having their familiar social system and environment changed has increased groups' and individuals' threat to their ontological security, escalating the need for a re-defining of one's identity. Within the time- and space-bounded characteristics of two sets of norms, religion and national identity, a person can find the psychological support, stability, and sense of safety in times of heightened ontological insecurity. In some societies, these two sets are synced for the purpose of nation-building of a country, and in some, they are not. This paper seeks to discover the conditions that contribute to involvement of religion in nation-building. Through event history analysis and text-as-data methods, this paper presents that religious norms and national identities are indeed positively associated, and individuals cling to religion and nation as a solution to their own ontological insecurity. Moreover, on the national level, the state can exploit this sociological feature, legitimize itself by adopting religious frames, and utilize religion in secular nation-building. However, the variation of three factors, pre-existing structures, institutional constraints, and event-generated influences, on a national level set the necessary conditions for whether the new nations of Eastern Europe use religion in their nation-building.

Author

• Nela Mrchkovska