Publications

Michael Minkenberg: Religion und Politik in westlichen Demokratien . Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2024.

In a systematic comparative analysis of all Western democracies, the book demonstrates the culturally determined path dependencies of modern politics and, at the same time, the politicization of religion. It shows that, despite all signs of secularization and religious pluralization, the Christian religion in its various facets (denominational traditions, institutional regulations, religious actors such as churches and political parties) still plays a role, not least in religiously tinged political fields such as moral or migration policy. However, the significance of this “public religion” goes hand in hand with increasing political appropriation.

Michael Minkenberg, Zsuzsanna Végh: Depleting Democracies. Radical right impact on parties, policies, and polities in Eastern Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press 2023.

Depleting democracies provides an analysis of the radical right's interactions with mainstream parties and the effect they have on setting political agendas in sensitive areas such as minority policies and asylum regulations. It asks to what extent the radical right has changed the quality of democracy in Eastern Europe: does its electoral strength, its capacity for political blackmail and its coalition potential actually translate into impact?

The book compares three groups of countries that are distinct in terms of the relevance of radical right parties: Bulgaria and Slovakia; Hungary, Poland and Romania; and the Czech Republic and Estonia. It follows a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of survey data with qualitative, comparative analysis of archival material and other texts to determine the causal role radical right parties play in influencing parties, policies and ultimately democratic quality in the seven countries.

Depleting democracies advances theory on radical right actors in the political process and contributes to empirical research across the region. Its results are particularly relevant to the debate on democratic transformation and the effects of radical right parties.

Anja Hennig and Mirjam Weiberg-Salzmann (eds.): Illiberal Politics and Religion in Europe and Beyond. Concepts, Actors, and Identity Narratives. (Religion and Modernity) Frankfurt - New York: Campus - University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Despite the broadly assumed institutional separation of church and state in contemporary Western politics, there is a trend towards renewed alliances between illiberal interpretations of religion and right-wing populist politics that challenge liberal democracy. This book explores the theoretically and empirically complex ideological, structural, and historical linkage between religion and illiberal politics within a broad range of European states. It shows how political actors apply Christian identity narratives to push exclusionist anti-Muslim politics, while simultaneously showcasing the ways in which religious actors evolve as illiberal players searching for political allies. This timely volume offers a critical look at a key contemporary issue that challenges assumptions and the reputations of current relationships between church and state.

Michael Minkenberg: Macht und Architektur. Hauptstadtbau, Demokratie und die Politik des Raumes. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2020.

The focus of this book is on the role of capital city design and architecture and their relationship to the political order, in particular democracy. The central thesis is that, due to the abstract and collective nature of the sovereign in the democratic state, no clear formal language can be read from the state architecture of “democratic capitals”. Rather, democracy is expressed in the fact that capital cities make political structures visible through their design and public architecture and at the same time provide a functioning stage for the performative tasks of democracy.

Artur Kopka, Dorota Piontek and Michael Minkenberg (eds.): Politikberatung und Lobbyismus im parlamentarischen Entscheidungsprozess. Germany and Poland in comparison. Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2019.

This book presents contributions from the German-Polish comparative project: “‘Knowledge is power’: Limits of political consulting and lobbying in the political decision-making process”. In addition to the structures and legal regulations in the field of political consulting and lobbying, the book analyzes in particular how they function and how the substantive basis for political decision-making comes about. In addition, the subject matter of the consultation, the tasks and the working and communication methods of various political consultants are discussed with regard to the different “expert cultures”.

Michael Minkenberg: The Radical Right in Eastern Europe: Democracy Under Siege? New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2017.

This book is a comparative analysis of the post-communist East European radical right, both in party and non-party formation, using the West European radical right as a baseline. Minkenberg offers insights into the political field of the radical right since the onset of democracy in the region and elicits region-wide and country-specific characteristics. The book argues that due to the nature of the transition process from Soviet hegemony to national independence and from communist to democratic societies, and the unfinished process of nation-building in the region, the radical right in Eastern Europe is a phenomenon sui generis, both organizationally more fluid and ideologically more extreme than the Western counterpart. The issues covered include trends in party system and electoral developments, patterns of movement mobilization and racist activism, and the impact of the radical right on their countries’ politics and policies.

Michael Minkenberg (ed.): Transforming the Transformation? The Radical Right in the Political Process in Eastern Europe. London, New York: Routledge 2015.

Transforming the transformation? The East European Radical Right in the Political Process examines the significance of radical right parties, along with other organizations, in terms of their involvement in the political process of new democracies.

This groundbreaking study highlights firstly the radical right’s interaction with other political actors, such as parties, governments and interest groups, in their respective countries. Secondly, the contributors analyze the effects of such interaction with regard to agenda setting and policies in "loaded" policy fields, namely minorities and immigration, law and order, religion, territorial issues and democratization. Through an examination of the role of radical right actors in political processes and an assessment of the resulting measurable outcomes, this book shows how policies, election results and regime changes indicate shifts away from the liberal-democratic order institutionalized in the course of post-Communist transformation.

Offering a unique cross-national comparison of particular facets and themes, as well as in-depth analysis of country cases, this book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as scholars, of European politics and far right studies.

Anja Hennig: Moralpolitik und Religion. Würzburg: Ergon 2012.

Moral policy is a conflict-ridden field in which irreconcilable values clash. The debates examined here on the legal regulation of abortions and artificial insemination as well as the recognition of homosexual partnerships are examples of this; sensitive issues on which the Catholic Church takes a clear position. For this reason, calls for a liberal approach have provoked fierce controversy over the last twenty years, particularly in Catholic countries. Moral politics is therefore also a field in which religion and politics clash particularly visibly, or - as this book shows - support each other.
Embedded in the debate critical of secularization, the book presents a comparative analysis of the aforementioned moral policy conflicts in Poland, Italy and Spain between 1990 and 2010. The author explores the question of why these Catholic countries differ in their moral policy legislation: Why did “gay marriage” and a liberal approach to abortion prevail in Spain? In Poland and Italy, on the other hand, those who rejected political recognition of homosexual couples and restricted the reproductive rights of women were successful.

To clarify this question, the author examines the respective interplay of certain facets of religion and politics in the course of the conflicts. Her findings clearly go beyond the country studies.

Michael Minkenberg: Religion und Politik in westlichen Demokratien. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2024.

Michael Minkenberg: Christliche Identitäten? Die radikale Rechte und die Religion im internationalen Vergleich, in: Fabian Virchow, Anke Hoffstadt, Cordelia Heß and Alexander Häusler (eds.), Handbuch Rechtsextremismus, 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2024.

Friederike Blauth and Michael Minkenberg: Die Rückkehr des christlichen Abendlandes? Parachristliche Identität und rechtsradikale Parteineigung in der westeuropäischen Öffentlichkeit, in: Jörg Baudner, Oliver Hidalgo and Philipp Hildmann (eds.), Europa - immer noch das christliche Abendland? Wiesbaden: Springer VS 2024.

Michael Minkenberg and Zsuzsanna Végh: Auszehrung der Demokratie: Politik- und Regimeeffekte der radikalen Rechten in Osteuropa, in: Zeitschrift für Rechtsextremismusforschung Vol. 4 No. 1 (2024), pp. 3-22.

Artur Kopka (with Dorota Piontek) (ed.): Polityczna kultura ekspercka w Polsce i w Niemczech. Politycy, doradcy i lobbyści w perspektywie porównawczej. Poznán: Wydawnictwo Naukowe WNPiD UAM.

The German version is entitled "Politische Expertenkultur in Deutschland und Polen. Politics, Consultancy and Lobbying in Comparison" published by Springer VS in 2024.

Anja Hennig: Christianity and Illiberal Politics, in Marlene Laruelle (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Illiberalism (online, Oxford Academic, 20 Nov. 2023).

Anja Hennig: Polen und die Zukunft des Katholizismus. Online dossier Poland by the Federal Centre for Civic Education, 2023.

Michael Minkenberg and Zsuzsanna Végh: Depleting Democracies. Radical right impact on parties, policies, and polities in Eastern Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2023.

Oliver Kossack: Pariahs or Partners? Patterns of Government Formation with Radical Right Parties in Central and Eastern Europe, 1990-2020. Bielefeld: transcript, 2023.

Anja Hennig: The Diverse Catholic Right in Poland, in Gionathan Lo Mascolo (ed.), The Christian Right in Europe (75-104). Bielefeld: transkript Verlag, 2023.