Political Religion - Typical Aspects

Typical Aspects

Key qualities often (not all are always strongly present) shared by religion (particularly cults) and political religion include

• Structural
  • differentiation between self and other, and demonisation of other (in theistic religion, the differentiation usually depends on adherence to certain dogmas and social behaviours; in political religion, differentiation may be on grounds such as nationality, social attitudes, or membership in "enemy" political parties, instead)
  • a transcendent leadership, either with messianic tendencies, often a charismatic figurehead;
  • strong, hierarchical organisational structures
  • the control of education, in order to ensure the security, continuation and the veneration of the existing system.

• Belief
  • a coherent belief system for imposing symbolic meaning on the external world, with an emphasis on security through faith in the system;
  • an intolerance of other ideologies of the same type
  • a degree of utopianism
  • the belief that the ideology is in some way natural or obvious, so that (at least for certain groups of people) those who reject it are in some way "blind"
  • a genuine desire on the part of individuals to convert others to the cause
  • a willingness to place ends over means - in particular, a willingness to use violence and fraud
  • fatalism - a belief that the ideology will inevitably triumph in the end

Not all of these aspects are present in any one political religion; this is only a list of some common aspects.