Laicity and the Inherited Boundaries between Religion and Politics in Québec
Reflections after Marcel Gauchet
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rsth.v34i2.26922Keywords:
Laicization, secularization, democracy, political life, religious life, anticlericalism, religious accommodationsAbstract
An understanding of the debate that has been taking place in Québec on reasonable accommodations and the ensuing Charter of Values presented in 2013 requires an analysis of the historical and political boundaries separating political life from religious life. This article argues that these boundaries have been structured by a history of laicization and by the mutually supporting roles of collective self-determination and laicity in Québécois identity. It presents a philosophical account of the work of Marcel Gauchet, Yvan Lamonde, and the report of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission on reasonable accommodations, and stresses the role of anticlericalism in the phases of the establishment of democracy in Québec, a society where the Catholic Church played a central social and institutional role.
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