Secularization stripped religion of its state-legitimating function in the US and Japan

Evidence

Taking Japan and the US as his case studies, he argues that in many contemporary societies, this mutual legitimation is no longer effective. In both cases, religion and politics were privatized and secularized and therefore lost their ability to provide legitimacy. Thus, religion influenced public life in the US by using religious but nonsectarian discourse, through social movements motivated by moral convictions. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 90

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s core question about whether manufactured sacred enemies sustain solidarity — here religion loses its legitimating role when privatized, which connects to threat-based legitimation dynamics. — connects to: Religious fusion with nationalism matters only when it legitimizes state governance. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 75; Secular welfare states displaced religion by replicating its cooperative functions; Religion as political legitimation functions regardless of actors’ actual religiosity — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 103 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Secular welfare states displaced religion by replicating its cooperative functions #expands (0.80)
• Secularization left a legitimation gap that only democratic procedure could fill #corroborates (0.80) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 16
• Religion as political legitimation functions regardless of actors’ actual religiosity #expands (0.78) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 103