Confessionalism

Confessionalism is an ideology that varies per country it's practiced in, being either economically centrist and culturally right-wing in the Netherlands, or just a layer of bureaucracy in states like Israel or Lebanon. Typically confessionalism means "representation of religion in politics".

History

Iraq

After the American invasion of Iraq a system was established, although not official but traditional, that required power to be shared between the main three ethnoreligious groups of Iraq: Sunni Arabs, Shi'ite Arabs and Kurds, with the President being a Kurd, Speaker of Parliament being a Sunni Arab and the Prime-Minister a Shi'ite Arab.

Israel

Among other limitations, political parties cannot deny that "Israel is a state of the Jewish people".

Lebanon

The seats of the parliament are split in two, half are for Christians: 34 for Maronite, 14 for Eastern Orthodox, 5 for Armenian Orthodox, 8 for Melkite Catholics, 1 for Protestants, and 1 for other Christian minorities, and the other half is split between Muslims and Druze (the Lebanese state considers Druze to be Muslims despite the majority of Druze people not defining as Muslims and the Druze faith not adhering to the five pillars of Islam), they are as follows: 27 for Sunni Muslims, 27 for Shi'ite Muslims, 2 for Alawite Muslims, and 8 for Druze.

Additionally, the National Pact, and after the civil war, the Taif agreement stipulates that the President must always be a Maronite Christian, the Prime minister always a Sunni, the speaker of parliament always a Shia, the deputy speaker of parliament and deputy prime minister Greek Orthodox and the Chief of the General staff of the Armed forces always a Druze.

Although it was supposed to be a temporary solution meant to ease sectarian tensions and create cohabitation between the different sects and their vision for Lebanon, "until such time as the Chamber enacts new electoral laws on a non-confessional basis", more than eighty years later, confessionalism remains the system of government implemented in Lebanon, much to the dismay of a big portion of the local population, and despite growing protests calling for its removal.

The Netherlands

In the Netherlands confessional parties generally adopt a economically centrist and culturally right-wing program to base their politics on, that program being influenced by the bible. The term was coined to mark the effective fuse of catholic and protestant ideologies into one ideology. Old confessional parties have later adopted Christian Democracy instead.

How to Draw

Flag of Confessionalism

Color Name		HEX	RGB
	Teal	#218A6E	33, 138, 110
	White	#FFFFFF	255, 255, 255

Relationships

Friends

Christian Democracy - Good job at representing religious interests in politics!
Islamic Democracy - Same as above.

Frenemies

Theocracy - That's a bit too much, don't you think?
Conservatism - Sure, most of you are religious, but for some reason you also seem to attract a lot of atheists who hate me.
Secularism - I know you oppose religious influence in government, but thanks for allowing religious people to publicly express themselves unlike your asshole brother.

Enemies

Laicism - Stop criminalizing people wearing hijabs and rosaries, damnit!
State Atheism - The hell?!

Further Information

Wikipedia

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