National churches, religious policy and free space : a comparison of religious policy in Poland, east Germany and Yugoslavia during communism
By: MIRESCU, Alexander
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ArticlePublisher: Philadelphia : Routledge, January 2009International Journal of Public Administration - IJPA 32, 1, p. 58-77Abstract: The goal of religious policy as executed in Communist Poland, East Germany and Yugoslavia aimed to marginalize national churches' influence on social and political life. Based on strategic interests and practical necessity, Communist Party leaders were forced to accommodated for the relevance of religious life even in an atheist environment. As national churches and regime officials engaged each other in a process of negotiated response to incentives, free spaces emerged that were located beyond the state's research. Under this protective, Marxist religious policy created the seeds of its own demise.
The goal of religious policy as executed in Communist Poland, East Germany and Yugoslavia aimed to marginalize national churches' influence on social and political life. Based on strategic interests and practical necessity, Communist Party leaders were forced to accommodated for the relevance of religious life even in an atheist environment. As national churches and regime officials engaged each other in a process of negotiated response to incentives, free spaces emerged that were located beyond the state's research. Under this protective, Marxist religious policy created the seeds of its own demise.
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