This course is primarily concerned with the domestic Australian elements in the interaction between politics and religious interests, organisations and ideas, but international aspects will also be considered. In the context of church-state debates, the direct place of Christians, Jews and Muslims in politics will be analysed, as well as the religious component of Aboriginal and ethnic politics. Religion generates political passion among both proponents and opponents and its impact on party and group politics is unpredictable as it appears on both the right and left of politics. Churches are themselves internally divided over political issues and over the appropriate relationship between church and state. Churches are also significant actors in public administration as deliverers of educational, health and welfare services. Political issues to be discussed include the regulation of life and death, educational politics, social justice, censorship and pornography, immigration and ethnic affairs, gender and equal employment opportunity and economic policy.

Students who have completed this course successfully should:

• Demonstrate understanding of the nature of the debates about church-state relations in democratic states, including Australia
• Demonstrate understanding of the interaction between religious belief and political behaviour
• Demonstrate knowledge of the political history of the role of Christianity in Australian politics
• Demonstrate knowledge of the political history of secularism in Australian politics
• Demonstrate knowledge of the political history of non-Christian faiths in Australian politics
• Demonstrate improved oral, research, writing, critical and analytical skills

Essay 2,500 words (50%), Exam one and a half hours (40%) OR Second Essay 2,000 words (40%),Tutorial Participation, including compulsory oral presentation (10%).

Two lectures and one tutorial per week.

Two first-year courses in Political Science, or with the permission of the lecturer.