Review by Choice Review
Democratic and autocratic regimes restrict religion and pursue policies varying from low-intensity regulation to state-imposed persecution of specific groups. The type of state thus fails to fully explain the degree of religious repression. Well placed within research on authoritarian systems, Sarkissian (Michigan State Univ.) asks why some politicians in nondemocratic countries use religious repression while others do not. Viewing religious divisions as part of civil society, she argues that autocratic politicians manipulate state-religious relations to enhance political survival, with some recognizing the problems of ruling by coercion alone. The resultant competition for political support pushes dictators to seek legitimation by targeting specific religious groups and pursuing strategies of co-optation with others, including creating religious monopolies. Sarkissian hypothesizes that autocracies with low political competition and high religious divisions will repress all religious groups, those with high political competition in societies not religiously divided will engage in little religious repression, and those falling between these extremes will more selectively target religious groups. This well-organized scholarly work contains an introduction, a chapter testing religious repression in 101 non-democratic countries from 1990 to 2010, four middle chapters featuring four comparative case studies each, and a seventh and concluding chapter. This excellent book is well written and argued. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates and above. --Thomas D. Lancaster, Emory University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
