Democracy and Religion in What State? State Projects, Sanitizing Politics, and Fracturing the Demos

Abstract The question of how to deal with religion is a central problem of the modern state. However, state effects on religious lifeworlds are rarely the object of critical theoretical inquiry. This paper seeks to remedy this lacuna by combining neo-Marxist, Foucauldian, and anthropological theories of the state with critical secularism studies to introduce the framework of state projects. Advocating for more bridge-building between political theory and anthropology, the paper draws on fieldwork in two highly diverse neighborhoods in Munich and London to identify three conflicting state projects organized around the imperatives of security, identity, and diversity. The paper argues that state interventions can sanitize politics from local democratic contestations and fracture the demos by imposing on citizens conflicting demands emanating from different grids of legibility.