Laicite Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Laicite is the French ideal of a secular society with a distinct separation between church and state. Laicite emphasizes individual religious freedom as well as organized religion free from state intervention and sponsorship. Laicite originates from the French Revolution (1789–1799), when the absolute monarchy collapsed along with the overthrow of contemporary political and social order. Prior to the revolution, the Catholic Church had considerable economic and political power, but afterward subsequent French governments confiscated the church’s landholdings and wealth, eliminating many of the privileges of the clergy.

In 1801, an agreement between Napoleon Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII known as The 1801 Concordat restored the Roman Catholic Church as the majority religion in France, but did not declare Catholicism as the official religion of the state. The Concordat reinforced the religious freedoms mandated in the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, adopted by the French National Constituent Assembly during the revolution and introduced man’s universal human rights into the French constitution. In 1905, laicite was more fully developed and protected by legislation, which forbade state support for any religion and banned religious education in the public schools.

Other countries, including Belgium, Brazil,Turkey, and the United States, have enacted similar laws and customs to practice secularism. More recently, with increases in immigration in the late twentieth century, new challenges have been posed to the French concepts of laicite prompting legislation in 2004 to ban religious garb, including Islamic headscarves, Christian crosses, Jewish Stars of David, or Sikh turbans, in the French public school system. However, some French laicite regulations have been criticized as too stringent and discriminatory, needing reform. French president Nicolas Sarkozy has publicly urged a more active role for faith in French public life and met with Pope Benedict XVI in 2007; however, despite attempts at modest reform, Sarkozy as well as the majority of France continue to advocate for a strong separation between religious practices and domestic politics.

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