The phenomenon of religious parties in the post-Soviet space

The article analyzes the phenomenon of religious parties in the post-Soviet space. It is shown that they were formed either in the formats of Islamic parties or Christian-democratic. There are States that impose a ban on the creation of parties on religious grounds, and those that allow their existence. The prerequisites for the appearance of such restrictions are shown. The article especially analyzes the case of Tadjikistan, where approaches to the possibilities of the legal existence of religious parties have fundamentally changed. Other criteria related to the religious sphere and limiting the activities of parties (propaganda of religious discord and enmity, financing of parties by religious structures, etc.) are also analyzed. The results of the analysis are presented in the summary table 1. The article shows that Islamic and Christian Democratic parties manifest themselves in the post-Soviet space as oppositional. There is an analysis of the prerequisites and factors, the value bases of such a situation. It is shown that Islamic proto-parties and movements offering an alternative project of statehood can exist only in an illegal format, and Christian Democratic parties acquiring national-state specifics can be both oppositional and supporting the current government, depending on its political course. The author also analyzes the reasons for the institutional weakness of religious parties. The conclusion is made about the negative result of projects to create religious parties in the post-Soviet space.

1. Abdulloev, I.R. (2013), “From the history of reforming the political system in Tajikistan”, Vestnik Tadzhikskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta prava, biznesa i politiki. Seriya gumanitarnyh nauk, vol. 55, no. 3, pp. 224–232.

2. Borisov, N.A. (2018), “Parliamentarization of government management forms in the post-Soviet states. The causes and consequences”, RSUH/RGGU. Series “Political Science. History. International Relations”, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 93–110.

3. Dinorshoev, A. (2016), “Constitutional and legal review of the 2016 amendments to the Constitution ofthe Republic of Tajikistan”, Sravnitel’noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, vol. 115, no. 6, pp. 14–20.

4. Duverger, M. (2000), Politicheskie partii [Political parties], Akademicheskii proekt, Moscow, Russia.

5. Kirchanov, M.V. (2014), “Religious parties in Georgia. Political platforms and ideological transformations”, Central Asia and the Caucasus, no. 2, pp. 106–113.

6. Kakitelashvili, M. (2019), “Monitoring the legal model of multiparty system in the CIS member States”, Monitoring pravoprimeneniya, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 16–24.

7. Kudryashova, I.V. and Kozintsev, A.S. (2021), “Islamic parties between sacred and profane. Transformation of the concept of party in the Muslim political discourse”, Politiya: Analiz. Khronika. Prognoz, vol. 103, no. 4, pp. 63–80.

8. Malakhov, V.S. and Letnyakov, D.E. (2021), “Religious politics of post-Soviet states. Between path dependence and governmentality”, Polis. Political Studies, no. 4, pp. 163–175.

9. Malashenko, A.V. (ed.) (1998), Islam v SNG [Islam in the CIS], Institut vostokovedeniya Rossiiskoi akademii nauk, Moscow, Russia.

10. Ostrogorskii, M.Ya. (1997), Demokratiya i politicheskie partii [Democracy and political parties], ROSSPEN, Moscow, Russia.

11. Sapronova, M.A. (2018), “Islamic parties and the state”, Asia and Africa today, no. 11, pp. 30–33.

12. Uzlaner, D.A. (2010), “The Soviet model of secularization”, Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, no. 6, pp. 62–69.

13. Khalid, A. (2010), Islam posle kommunizma: religiya i politika v Tsentral’noi Azii [Islam after communism. Religion and politics in Central Asia], Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, Moscow, Russia.

14. Shchipkov, A.V. (2004), Khristianskaya demokratiya v Rossii [Christian democracy in Russia], Klyuch-S, Moscow, Russia.

15. Kulik, A. and Pshizova, S. (eds.) (2005), Political parties in post-Soviet space. Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and the Baltics, Praeger, Westport, USA, London, UK.