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Why do some countries have ´Culture Wars´ over morality issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage while other countries hardly experience any conflict? This book argues that morality issues only generate major conflicts in political systems with a significant conflict between religious and secular parties.

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Introduction; I.Engeli , C.Green-Pedersen & L.T.Larsen Theoretical Perspectives on Morality Issues; I.Engeli , C.Green-Pedersen & L.T.Larsen How to Study the Two Worlds of Morality Politics; I.Engeli , C.Green-Pedersen & L.T.Larsen Morality Issues in the Netherlands: Coalition Politics under Pressure; A.Timmermans & G.Breeman From Prohibition to Permissiveness: a Two Wave Change on Morality Issues in Spain; L.Chaqués Bonafont & A.M.Palau Roqué Morality Politics in Switzerland: Politicization through Direct Democracy; I.Engeli & F.Varone Morality Politics in the United Kingdom: Trapped Between Left and Right; L.T.Larsen , D.T.Studlar & C.Green-Pedersen Morality Issues in Denmark: Policies without Politics; E.Alb‘k ; C.Green-Pedersen & L.T.Larsen The US and Western Europe Compared: How the ´God Gap´ Led the US to Join the Religious World of Morality Politics; D.T.Studlar The Two Worlds of Morality Politics - What Have We Learned? I.Engeli , L.T.Larsen & C.Green-Pedersen

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´Pathbreaking in its theoretical insight and scope of coverage, Morality Politics in Western Europe solves the puzzle of how and where moral conflicts arise in a secularized Europe... This original contribution is essential reading for all scholars and students of public policy, comparative studies, and religion and politics.´

- Raymond Tatalovich, Professor of Political Science, Loyola University, Chicago, USA

´Theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, the studies collected in this book explain the puzzling fact of why in some countries morality issues become politically explosive, while in others they sometimes do not even reach the political agenda. This is a well-written, authoritative and easily accessible contribution to our comparative understanding of what provokes and

what dampens conflict around morality issues.´

- Kees van Kersbergen, Professor of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark

´Morality Politics in Western Europe is a breakthrough piece of scholarship. These scholars are the first to explore systematically the causes and effects of morality-based policy issues outside the US... The work is truly comparative in the best sense, revealing what has heretofore been largely ignored by political scientists that while morality issues in Europe constitute perhaps a small proportion of the overall public agenda, they - play an outsized role in defining politics there.´

- Christopher Mooney, Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Springfield, USA

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ERIK ALB’K Professor, University of Southern Denmark GERARD BREEMAN Assistant Professor of Public Administration, Wageningen University, the Netherlands LAURA CHAQUÉS Bonafont Professor, University of Barcelona and Research Fellow, Institut Barcelona d´Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), Spain ANNA M. PALAU Post-doctoral Researcher, University of Barcelona, Spain DONLEY T. STUDLAR Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of Political Science, West Virginia University, USA ARCO TIMMERMANS Research Director, Montesquieu Institute for comparative studies of parliamentary systems in the EU, the Hague, the Netherlands FRÉDÉRIC VARONE Professor of Political Science, University of Geneva, Switzerland

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