Tibetan peoplehood, culture, and society are inextricably bound up with Lamaism, as Tibet's distinct form of Buddhism is called. The Dalai Lama is both the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people. Imagine, if you can, Israel's head of state being, by law, a descendant of a High Priest from the days when the Temple still stood.
The question sometimes arises in discussions about Israel whether it is possible for a state to be both Jewish and democratic. Tibet and many European democracies provide interesting case studies that uniformly suggest an affirmative answer. Let's continue with Tibet before moving on to Europe.
In 1991, the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies adopted a constitution, sometimes called the Charter of the Tibetans In-Exile. It begins:
Whereas His Holiness the Dalai lama has offered a democratic system to Tibetans, in order that the Tibetan People in-Exile be able to preserve their ancient traditions of spiritual and temporal life, unique to the Tibetans, based on the principles of peace and non-violence, aimed at providing political, social and economic rights as well as the attainment of justice and equality for all Tibetan people
The constitution "shall come into force on the day appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama." (Art. 1.)
"The future Tibetan polity shall uphold the principle of non-violence and shall endeavour to be a Free Social Welfare State with its politics guided by the Dharma," or teachings of the Buddha. (Art. 3.)
Although Article 3 also prescribes that Tibet will be a "Federal Democratic Republic," Article 19 vests executive power in the Dalai Lama:
The executive power of the Tibetan Administration shall be vested in His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and shall be exercised by Him, either directly or through officers subordinate to Him, in accordance with the provisions of this Charter.
So, rather than election or dynastic succession, the chief executive will be chosen through reincarnation, effected by a group of monks who identify a child and proclaim him the (new) Dalai Lama.
The constitution provides that "[a]ll religious denominations are equal before the law." (Art. 10.) But the constitution also privileges Buddhism . Article 17 provides, among other things, that the Tibetan Administration
shall endeavour to establish pure and efficient academic and monastic communities of monks, nuns, and tantric practitioners, and shall encourage them to maintain a correct livelihood.
This same article also charges the Tibetan government with "endeavour[ing] to disseminate a non-sectarian and wholesome tradition of Buddhist doctrines." (Emphasis added).
Can a state be both Tibetan and democratic? At least in principle, why not? Would such a state be inherently illegitimate, or less legitimate than the current situation? I think not.
What about Europe?
Many European countries, commonly regarded as democracies, have special constitutional connections between the state and a particular religion, people, or both. The European Commission for Human Rights repeatedly has ruled that a country does not violate European human rights norms by having an official or state church, so long as everyone is free not to belong to it without being penalized.
As for giving preferential treatment to members of a diaspora regarding immigration and naturalization, a report adopted by the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe on the Preferential Treatment of National Minorities by their Kin State recognizes such preferences as legitimate: "Indeed, this kind of ethnic targeting is commonly done, for example, in laws on citizenship." The report cites " Article 116 of the German Grundgesetz, which provides:"
Unless otherwise provided by Statute, a German within the meaning of this Constitution is a person who possesses German citizenship or who has been admitted to the territory of the German Reich within the frontiers of 31 December 1937 as a refugee or expellee of German ethnic origin or as the spouse or descendent of such person. (2) Former German citizens who, between 30 January 1933 and 8 May 1945 were deprived of their citizenship on political, racial or religious grounds, and their descendants, are re-granted German citizenship on application. They are considered as not having been deprived of their German citizenship where they have established their residence in Germany after 8 May 1945 and have not expressed a contrary intention.
Greece
The Constitution of Greece, adopted in 1975 after the fall of the military junta, and since amended several times, gives official status to the Greek Orthodox Church. Although the Greek constitution guarantees Greek citizens freedom of conscience and equal rights, the constitution is not at all religiously neutral.
Preamble:
A. In the name of the Holy and Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity, the Fifth Revisionary Parliament of the Hellenes resolves
The President of the Republic must take the following oath "prior to his taking office" (Art. 33):
"I do swear in the name of the Holy and consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity to safeguard the Constitution and the laws, to care for the faithful observance thereof, to defend the national independence and territorial integrity of the Country, to protect the rights and liberties of the Greeks and to serve the general interest and the progress of the Greek People"
Relations of Church and State (Art. 3):
- The prevailing religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. The Orthodox Church of Greece, acknowledging our Lord Jesus Christ as its head, is inseparably united in doctrine with the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople and with every other Church of Christ of the same doctrine, observing unwaveringly, as they do, the holy apostolic and synodal canons and sacred traditions. It is autocephalous and is administered by the Holy Synod of serving Bishops and the Permanent Holy Synod . . .
- The text of the Holy Scripture shall be maintained unaltered. Official translation of the text into any other form of language, without prior sanction by the Autocephalous Church of Greece and the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople, is prohibited.
Religion (Art. 13):
Although "freedom of religious conscience is inviolable" and "[a]ll known religions shall be free and their rites of worship shall be performed unhindered and under the protection of the law," "Proselytism is prohibited." (Emphasis added).
Education (Art. 16):
- Education constitutes a basic mission for the State and shall aim at the moral, intellectual, professional and physical training of Greeks, the development of national and religious consciousness and at their formation as free and responsible citizens.
And the Constitution establishes a special governing regime for Mount Athos (the Athos peninsula). (Art. 105.)
* Administration of the region is in the hands of "representatives of the Holy Monasteries constituting the Holy Community."
* "Heterodox or schismatic persons shall be prohibited from dwelling thereon."
* "All persons leading a monastic life thereon acquire Greek citizenship without further formalities, upon admission as novices or monks."
* "Faithful observance of the regimes of the Aghion Oros entities shall in the spiritual field be under the supreme supervision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate" (that is, the Patriarch of Constantinople, in Turkey).
Code of Greek Citizenship
"Foreign persons of Greek origin" who join the military "automatically obtain the Greek citizenship from their admission to the military schools or from their enlistment." (Art. 4.)
"Foreign persons" also may become naturalized Greek citizens. If they are "not of Greek origin," however, then, among other things, there is a 10-year residency requirement (5 years for refugees). Foreigners of Greek origin have no residency requirement. (Art. 5). Some 200,000 ethnic Greeks, with no other connection to modern Greece, have immigrated to Greece and received citizenship under this provision since the demise of the USSR.
The Greek constitution also enshrines a special relationship between the Greek state and emigrants from Greece and their descendants. Article 108 provides:
The State must take care for emigrant Greeks and for the maintenance of their ties with the Fatherland.
Indeed, Greece maintains a General Secretariat for Greeks Abroad:
It is the Greek government body responsible for the planning, coordination, and implementation of policy regarding Diaspora Hellenes.
Republic of Ireland
From 1937 to 1973, the Irish Constitution recognized "the special position of the Catholic Church." Even so, the Irish constitution is not religiously neutral. Thus, the preamble manifests the historic Irish connection between religious and national conscious:
In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,
We, the people of Éire,
Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial,
Gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our Nation,
Article 2 of the Irish constitution recognizes a "special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage." By governmental practice, applicants for citizenship who are of Irish descent, including the descendants of people who emigrated from Ireland before the creation of the Irish Free State in 1921, are granted citizenship without delay.
Scandinavia
Although Sweden disestablished the Lutheran Church in 2000, it remains established in Denmark, Iceland, Finland, and Norway. In Finland, the small Orthodox Church also has official status. Finland also has given special immigration rights, which Finland views as repatriation, to ethnic Finns from the former Soviet Union:
"A permit for residency may be granted 1. if the applicant himself, one of his parents or at least two of his four grandparents are or have been registered as having Finnish origin, or 2. if there is another tie that shows the applicant’s affinity to Finland and Finnishness, but he has no documents to show that he meets the requirements mentioned in point 1."
Denmark:
The Evangelical Lutheran Church shall be the Established Church of Denmark, and, as such, it shall be supported by the State.
Norway:
The Evangelical-Lutheran religion shall remain the official religion of the State. The inhabitants professing it are bound to bring up their children in the same.
The King shall at all times profess the Evangelical-Lutheran religion, and uphold and protect the same.
More than half the number of the Members of the Council of State shall profess the official religion of the State.
The King ordains all public church services and public worship, all meetings and assemblies dealing with religious matters, and ensures that public teachers of religion follow the norms prescribed for them.
Italy
Although Italy is officially a secular state and has a strong anti-clerical tradition, Italy has retained and enforces a law, dating from Mussolini, that requires public display of the crucifix in public school classrooms, courts, and hospitals. In 2004, reversing a lower court decision, the Constitutional Court ruled against a Muslim parent's objection that displaying the crucifix in his child's classroom violated Italy's constitutional guarantee of civic equality and respect for all religions. In a similar case in 2006, the Italian Council of State ruled that, in addition to being a religious symbol, the crucifix also symbolized "the values which underlie and inspire our constitution, our way of living together peacefully."
Alexander Yakobson, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and co-author, with Amnon Rubenstein, of Israel and the Family of Nations: The Jewish Nation-State and Human Rights, comments ("Jewish Peoplehood and the Jewish State, How Unique?," 13 Israel Studies 2 (Summer 2008), at 10-11:
The official insistence that the crucifix appears in Italian public schools as a symbol not of a particular religion but of the Italian national identity and culture may be thought to solve the problem from the viewpoint of the principle of secularism as conceived by the majority which is either Catholic or post-Catholic. However, it is wholly incompatible with the broader notion, advocated by some, that a democratic state is, or should be, "neutral" when it comes to culture and identity. Of course, many regular features of contemporary democracies are incompatible with this notion.
It isn't even neutral to say that Italian is central to Italian identity, at least not from the perspective of the German-speakers in South Tyrol.
The Cross and European Flags
Even if Italy is unusual in defining the crucifix as a national symbol, the cross as (part of) the national symbol of western, democratic, secular countries is fairly common: Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Malta, Norway, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
The coats of arms of Spain and the Netherlands contain small crosses atop the royal crown. As Dr. Yakobson comments (above, at 11):
From the religious point of view, it is in fact more "non-neutral" than the Star of David that appears on the Israeli flag. The Star of David is a traditional Jewish symbol, but it has no particular religious significance; no Muslim or Christian soldier in the Israeli Army needs to feel a religious scruple when saluting a flag which contains it.
Formerly Communist countries
Bulgaria:
Article 13 both grants freedom to practice "any religion" and recognizes Eastern Orthodox Christianity as "the Republic of Bulgaria." Article 3 makes Bulgarian the country's "official language"; Under Article 36, "[t]he study and use of the Bulgarian language is a right and obligation of every Bulgarian citizen." Bear in mind, however, that Bulgaria contains a large Turkish-speaking, Muslim minority.
Bulgaria also provides members of the Bulgarian diaspora with a preferential route to citizenship: "(2) A person of Bulgarian origin shall acquire Bulgarian citizenship through a facilitated procedure." (Art. 25.)
Armenia:
Although the Armenian constitution, as amended in 2005, guarantees religious freedom and separates church and state, it also
recognizes the exclusive historical mission of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church as a national church, in the spiritual life, development of the national culture and preservation of the national identity of the people of Armenia.
The Venice Commission of the Council of Europe reviewed the amended Armenian constitution in terms of European democratic and human rights norms without faulting the national recognition afforded the Armenian church.
As for citizenship, Article 11.3 provides that "Armenians by birth shall acquire citizenship of the Republic of Armenia through a simplified procedure." This is significant because the population of Armenia is much smaller than the number of ethnic Armenians in the Armenian diaspora. Indeed, Article 11 provides for a special relationship with the Armenian diaspora: "Within the framework of the principles and norms of the international law the Republic of Armenia shall contribute to fostering relations with the Armenian Diaspora, protecting the Armenian historical and cultural values located in other countries, advancing the Armenian education and culture. "
Georgia(pdf):
The Georgian constitution, like that of Armenia, recognizes the special status of the Orthodox Church:
The state shall declare complete freedom of belief and religion, as well as shall recognise the special role of the Apostle Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia in the history of Georgia and its independence from the state.
Poland:
The Polish constitution affirms a "culture rooted in the Christian heritage of our Nation[.]" (Preamble.) It also recognizes a special relationship with the Polish diaspora:
Bound in community with our compatriots dispersed throughout the world,. (Preamble.)
The Republic of Poland shall provide assistance to Poles living abroad to maintain their links with the national cultural heritage. (Art. 6.)
Accordingly, Article 52 guarantees permanent residency to "[a]nyone whose Polish origin has been confirmed in accordance with statute[.]" Indeed, a law enacted in 2000 offers immediate Polish citizenship to members of the Polish diaspora who have kept their Polish cultural identity.
Surveying these data, Dr. Yakobson concludes (above at 12):
It is obvious that contemporary democratic states are often officially "non-neutral" in matters of religion and, moreover, that official and symbolic links to a religion regularly reflect a certain notion of national identity rather than religiosity as such. There is, then, nothing extraordinary about a nation-state of a people whose history and culture strongly connect it to a certain religion. This connection, apart from being a fact of cultural and social life, can also be enshrined in a country’s constitution and embodied in its national symbols. Though it may seem counter-intuitive, all this is compatible with the country in question being secular not just in practice but also as a matter of constitutional definitions, and with an official separation between state and religious institutions.