History, international norms and domestic institutional change: State-religion relations in France and Turkey

This dissertation examines the role of history and international norms on domestic institutional change. It aims to identify the conditions under which international norms create domestic institutional change. The study looks at the impact of international norms on state-religion institutions in France and Turkey in 1990s and 2000s. It argues that given structured relationships among sets of domestic groups competing over different policies, the presence of strong international pressure and pro-norm historical institutions select out for success the group most consistent with international norms. The outcome also depends upon the domestic power structures determined by the historical institutional setting.;This dissertation contributes to the discipline in a number of ways. Going beyond the traditional approaches (secularization theory and rational choice theory), it offers a new framework to the study of religion and politics that enables scholars to analyze interactions of global, local and historical processes. The study synthesizes new institutionalist theories by specifying the working conditions of each theory. Integrating sociological and political theories of institutions, this research offers new analytical ways to understand the public debates on increasing role of religion in democratic societies. Further, this study identifies the mechanisms through which international norms become part of domestic institutions.;To test this argument, France and Turkey are compared with respect to three issues: the expression of religious symbols in public sphere, rights for religious minorities, and corporate representation of religions. In doing so, the technique of process-tracing is used to uncover the causal mechanisms. The data is drawn from international legal documents, reports of governmental and non-governmental organizations, judicial documents, and print media sources. Much of the data was obtained during the fieldwork in France and Turkey.