Abstract

This essay deals with religious fundamentalist movements engaged in democratic politics: a phenomenon still not thoroughly analyzed by comparative political science. First of all; it proposes a definition of religious fundamentalism which can be suitable for political science research. Later; it takes into account four cases of religious fundamentalist movements in democratic regimes: the Christian right in the USA; the sangh parivar in India; the Jewish religious nationalist movement in Israel; and the Islamist movement in Turkey. In this section; the main features of the movements’ mobilization and their political strategies are singled out. The work eventually tries to find out common patterns by comparing the different movements; their relationship with politics; and their impact on public policies. Particularly; it proposes a typology of fundamentalist movements in democracy; according to their political strategies and the ideological orientation of their issues.