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REVIEWS, CRITICAL VIEWS AND POLEMICS 241
© 2021 Authors. Center for Study of Religion and Religious Tolerance, Belgrade, Serbia.This article is an open access article
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Marko Veković Book review
“DEMOCRATIZATION IN CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX EUROPE:
COMPARING GREECE, SERBIA AND RUSSIA”
Routledge, 2020, London & New York, pp. 176, ISBN: 9780367420833, £120
The revision of Huntington’s thesis on the incompatibility of Eastern Ortho-
doxy with Western political values is undertaken by Marko Veković to support
the argument on the varying roles of Orthodox Churches in the democratization
process in the twentieth and twenty-rst centuries. In the innovative compara-
tive analysis on the relationship between Orthodoxy and politics of transition,
the plethora of historical events is narrated and interpreted by the author clearly
and logically to provide the readers the possibility of nding the answers to the
questions: why Orthodoxy diers in its perception of democracy, participation in
democratization processes, and what kind of endogenous and exogenous con-
ditions may produce these dierences.
In addressing these inquires, Veković follows various methodological ap-
proaches which assist the understanding of the political roles of Orthodox
Churches in the recent and still ongoing process of societal transformation from
authoritarianism to liberal democracies. Specically, he applies the perspective
of Toft, Philpott, and Shah on the role of religious actors in global politics to the
analysis of the cases of democratization in Greece, Serbia, and Russia designat-
ing the free-riding, leading, and resisting roles of Orthodox Churches in the pro-
cesses of political and religious transit.
In contrast to the studies on Orthodoxy and politics, political theology, or So-
cial Thought, which highlight the possible compatibilities and/or constraints of
engagement of Orthodox Christianity with modernity and assume the presence
of a homogeneous system of political-theological perspectives within Orthodox
tradition, this study follows another approach. It addresses the importance of
endogenous theoretical debates on Orthodoxy and modernization; however,
emphasizing stronger necessity of investigating the Church action and types
of leadership in the public life and discourse during the turmoil of transit. The
origins and consequences of democratization transit of societies dominated by
Orthodox Christianity together with the specic role of religious leaders and in-
stitutions performed in the changing historical dynamics are at the center of this
book.
The emphasis on comparative research allows considering the democratiza-
tion process in a diversity of socio-religious and political contexts. Moreover, it
became possible to link the processes of internal democratization of the Church-
es with the processes of liberalization of political and religious lives of broader
ПОЛИТИКОЛОГИЈА РЕЛИГИЈЕ бр. 1/2021 год XV• POLITICS AND RELIGION • POLITOLOGIE DES RELIGIONS • Nº 1/2021 Vol. XV
242 ПРИКАЗИ, НАУЧНА КРИТИКА И ПОЛЕМИКА
societies. To present the snapshots of democratization stages in three selected
countries, the author examined the types of Church-State relations while inter-
preting the broader socio-political context of transformations and the type of
political regime that preceded democratic transitions. One more important fac-
tor which is taken into consideration is how the democratization started, namely
what kind of political actors were engaged in the process of awakening demo-
cratic values and attitudes in three selected dominant Orthodox Christian societ-
ies.
The cogency of the arguments of the author is based on a detailed recon-
struction of historical events and political discourses related to the various
stages of democratization in Greece, Serbia, and Russia. Following the institu-
tional political analysis, the levels of autonomy of Orthodox Churches are inves-
tigated to explain their more free or more dependent statuses in relation to the
states. Among various hypotheses on the role of Orthodoxy in democratization,
Veković proposed that “the more the Church is institutionally autonomous and
thus independent from the State, its democratizing potential increases. Contrary
to this, the Church will not support democratization, nor oppose the authoritar-
ian regime, if its level of autonomy is low” (p. 29). Namely, the dierences in the
prevailing models of State-Church relations in Orthodox countries – symphonia
– and the type of political regime are at the center of this research. The author
manages to clearly show that despite the similarities of the starting points of po-
litical transformation linked to the communist heritage of the governance and
the dominance of Orthodoxy in cultural lives, the trajectories of democratization
were inuenced by the diverse types of authoritarianism, levels of autonomy of
the Church, and types of symphonia in each out of three cases.
In explaining various cases, the author argues that in Greece, the Church per-
formed a free-riding role and did not oppose the military junta’s regime during
1967–1974; however, it did not oppose democratic changes as well. Three nar-
rated cases grab the reader’s attention toward the changing public positions of
Orthodoxy during the democratization stages and the importance of the Church
leadership, as it was showed on the example of the Serbian Church and the lead-
ing role of Patriarch Pavle during the period of 1991–2000 in opposing the author-
itarian regime of Slobodan Milošević. The case of the Russian Orthodox Church
illustrates the resisting role of the religious institution toward the democratiza-
tion process during the transformation dynamics in post-communist Russia. The
brief period of perestroika was followed by a political backlash of the state, and
the failures of democratization of the state were not considered by the Orthodox
Church with a critical response due to the “asymmetric symphonia” meaning that
“one side (the State) is stronger than the other (the Church)” (p. 126).
The volume is an important contribution to the study of Orthodoxies and de-
mocracies within a broader comparative approach to the study of religion and
politics. It draws our attention to the dynamic character of the democratization
REVIEWS, CRITICAL VIEWS AND POLEMICS 243
Marko Veković, “DEMOCRATIZATION IN CHRISTIAN ORTHODOX EUROPE:
COMPARING GREECE, SERBIA AND RUSSIA” • pp (241-243)
process and highlights the importance of studying not only State-Church rela-
tions or institutional perspectives of Orthodoxy but the necessity of mapping the
role of religiously oriented political parties, social movements, and politically ac-
tive religious organizations during the societal transformations. The author suc-
ceeded in presenting the variety of Orthodox responses toward the democratic
political changes showing that Orthodox values and positions could be compat-
ible with the values of democracy at various degrees. However, it is sometimes
not clear if the author in his attempt to justify the argument of compatibility con-
siders the failures of democratization in terms of “wrong Orthodoxy.” As stated in
the concluding part of the book, a comparative perspective may assist in avoid-
ing “oversimplifying the problem, biased approaches and ideologically based as-
sumptions” (p. 159).
Veković’s engagement with the topic, the richness of historical material pre-
sented, and clear methodology of analysis by which the author highlighted the
ambiguous roles that Orthodox Churches performed at the political moment of
transit from authoritarianism to democracy, make this book important both for
scholars as well as general readership. It is primarily relevant for those who are
looking for political and sociological analysis on Orthodoxy and democratiza-
tion, political values of Orthodox tradition, and Church-State relations in post-
communist countries. Moreover, thanks to the variety of contextual factors and
nuances of transition, this book will be interesting for all who are engaged with
the study of democratic systems showing the possible risks and backlashes of
modern democracies and roles that religious traditions may perform within po-
litical life.
Giuseppe Giordan1
Date received: February 8, 2021
Date accepted: February 15, 2021
1 Giuseppe Giordan is Professor of Sociology at the University of Padova (Italy), where he teaches Sociology of Religion and Religion
and Human Rights. He serves as a Director of the International Joint PhD programme in Human Rights, Society, and Multilevel
Governance. He is co-editor of the Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, and author, co-author and co-editor of more than
20 book and special issues, and nearly 70 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He is a member of the Council of the Interna-
tional Society for the Sociology of Religion. Contact E-mail: giuseppe.giordan@unipd.it