In the book American Political Thought, historian Schleifer questions the critique of French historian Tocqueville, well known for his 1835 book Democracy in America. Schleifer further criticizes the 3-part breakdown of Tocqueville’s justification to religions central role in democracy, or according to him, a God favoured democracy. This text is important to my research because it cross examines America’s political society and its religious society used to converge similar values and maintain its power. The author effectively describes Tocqueville’s thoughts used to link religion, equality, political order, and democracy. Both entail dangers and benefits from religious power in democracy, central to understanding Western democracy.
Democracy and Religion: Theoretical and Empirical Observations on the Relationship between Christianity, Islam and Liberal Democracy.
Minkenberg’s paper assesses democracy and religions contrary to its values using an empirical standpoint when discussing its “problematic” integration with western democratization. Using the historical secularization of the democratic states, Minkenberg emphasized the difference between historically favoured religions, in comparison to Islam under a democratic scope. Historically, democracy has used religion as part of its foundation, in particular, the moral responsibility to its citizens. Non-western religions, like Islam, have this same moral standard, yet would not properly govern these states. Understanding how the intersection of religion and politics is vital to answering such questions to how democracy may not best-fit every society.