Politics and human rights issues in state formation on religion and the Divine Right

Aim: The Divine Right Theory is a political and religious concept that suggests a ruler's authority and legitimacy come directly from a higher power, such as a deity or God. It was mainly used in the medieval age in Europe. For example King Louis XVI and King James 1 took the throne on this theory. The aim of this milestone is to examine in detail how the theory is applied in new state formation OR justification and legitimation of a ruler's authority within an existing political entity.

Method: Conduct a systematic review of at least 15 research papers published in A-category journals after 2018. All these studies must have some kind of primary research. They must explain how rulers have traditionally used divine right theory to gain power/control over a state.

Have a clear inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure the selection of relevant research. Employ the PRISMA diagram to transparently depict the studies' selection process.

Structure: To achieve this milestone, write a 1500 words article following the below structure.

• Introduction: The topic of study must be briefly presented here along with basic background information on the key topics like state formation, its need and different theories. Then a few lines on divine rights theory must be presented.
• Methodology: Introduce your chosen methodology, i.e., systematic review of literature. Explain the elements you will focus on, i.e., divine right theory and state formation. Also briefly state the importance of choosing this method.
  • Studies selection process: Clearly articulate the criteria used for selecting studies such as keywords used, and sources or libraries used.
  • Inclusion and exclusion criteria: explain the criteria employed to include or exclude studies, like year of publication, language, format, publication credibility, etc.
  • PRISMA diagram: Present the PRISMA diagram to visually depict the systematic review process and highlight the number of studies at each stage.
• Analysis: This is the main section presenting the systematic review. It will have some paragraphs and a table.
  • Explanation- Origin and prevalence of divine right theory
  • Systematic review table- States formed/ rules established using divine right theory. Here is an example. All the 15 studies must be included in this table.
• Discussion: Summarize and synthesize the findings from the selected studies.
• Conclusion: Summarize the key findings
• References

Aim: the Divine Right Theory is a medieval age practice which was followed by Kings and Czars in Europe and Russia respectively. According to this theory, a ruler can claim the throne by declaring that his authority and legitimacy come directly from a higher power, such as a deity or God. However in early modern period, particularly in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, states formed on the basis religion have become more widespread. Both are similar in the intertwining of political and religious authority. The aim of this milestone is to draw a comparison on the application of the Divine Right Theory and states formed on the basis of religion by using case examples.

Method: Conduct a comprehensive literature review. The review will encompass on the core concepts along with case studies showing the line of demarcation between divine rights theory and state formation based on religion. The milestone will utilize a minimum of 15 sources of secondary data dated post-2018.

Structure: To achieve this milestone, write a 1200 words article in the following structure.

• Introduction: Provide an overview of the chosen concepts- Divine Right Theory and states formed on the basis of religion.
• Discussion
  • How the power of the King in the context of ruling the state has changed over the centuries
  • Comparison of Divine Right Theory and states formed on the basis of religion
    • Application (how it takes place)
    • Origin
    • Cases/ examples (show how some countries are using the theory of divine rights to justify the existence of Kingship)
    • Outcomes for the state/ country
  • How the power of this king in the context of ruling the state has changed over the centuries.
• Conclusion: Summarize the key findings
• References

 

Note: Use figures, diagrams and tables wherever possible. Do not copy-paste them from any source.

Aim: Since the early modern period, i.e., 18^th and 19^th centuries, many states have been formed on the basis of religion. Examples include Iran, Israel and Pakistan. This milestone aims to conduct a comprehensive literature review to understand how religion is mixed with politics in many countries of the world to justify many political activities and practices, and the outcome of such practices.

Method: The literature review will involve an in-depth analysis of at least 15 scholarly articles, research papers, and industry reports published after 2018. The focus will be on explaining how and why modern states use religion to form a new authority or a new country. The studies must also explain the implications of the same.

Structure: To achieve this milestone prepare a 1200 words article in the following structure.

• Introduction- Modern theory of state formation, the redundancy of the Divine Right Theory, and the use of religion to justify political agenda
• Religion in politics and its close association with the Divine Right theory- take the case studies of countries like Iran, Nepal, Vatican, Italy, etc. to show how they use religion in politics and how they justify different state processes and political approaches with the help of religion. Discuss how this approach has a close association with divine rights theory.
• Outcomes/ impact of states formed on the basis of religion
  • the freedom of speech
  • human rights
    • Religious minorities
    • LGBTQ
    • Migrants and refugees
    • Prisoners
    • Women
  • political participation
• Conclusion- summarize the key findings from the literature review.
• References

Note: Use figures, diagrams and tables wherever possible. Do not copy-paste them from any source.

Aim: Officially, Nepal is a democratic republic today. However, it was historically a state formed on the basis of the Divine Right Theory where the Shah dynasty, which ruled Nepal for several centuries, claimed its legitimacy based on the divine right of kings. In this milestone the aim is to explore how the power of a king is justified in Nepal in the context of the Divine Right Theory even today.

Method: Follow the case study method of explanation. Use at least 15 scholarly articles and research papers published after 2008.

Structure: To achieve this milestone, prepare a 1000 words article in the following structure.

• Introduction: A brief history of politics of Nepal and how the Divine Right Theory came into existence there.
• Religion and Divine Right in the politics of modern Nepal: Here, your purpose will be to make an elaborate discussion on the justifications that the Nepalese government gives for maintaining kingship and how it can be related to divine rights theory. So, choose studies that specifically focus on the structure of political governance in Nepal and how kingship is justified in the country based on divine rights theory.
• Examples to show the persistence of Divine Right Theory and religion in the political framework of Nepal- Demonstrate examples of incidents and events which have taken place in Nepal to show that the Divine Right Theory and religion still exist in the 21^st Take instances after 2008 only.
• Conclusion: Summarize the key findings
• References

 

Aim: In the UK, in the medieval era, the Divine Right Theory was applied where a King claimed the throne on the basis of a Divine figure/ God. It has given way to democracy today. The aim of this milestone is to understand how the Church occupies an important place in the political fabric of the UK  and has a significant role in state formation and working.

Method: Follow the case study method of explanation. Use at least 15 scholarly articles and research papers published after 2008.

Structure: To achieve this milestone, prepare a 1000 words article in the following structure.

• Introduction: A brief history of politics of the UK and how the Divine Right Theory was practiced there.
• The Church and Divine Right in the politics of modern-day UK: Here, your purpose will be to make an elaborate discussion on the presence of the Divine Right in the Royal Office today. So, choose studies that specifically focus on the current structure of political governance in the UK and how kingship is justified in the country based on divine rights theory.
• Connection between the role of the church in determining state formation in the UK
• Examples to show the persistence of Divine Right Theory and religion in the political framework of the UK- demonstrate examples of incidents and events which have taken place in the UK to show that the Divine Right Theory and religion still exist in the 21^st
• Conclusion: Summarize the key findings
• References

Note: Use figures, diagrams and tables wherever possible. Do not copy-paste them from any source.

Aim: In the medieval ages, political rules in countries like the UK and France took place on the basis of the Divine Right Theory but this began to be replaced with formation of states on the basis of religion. Modern day states formed on the basis of religion are Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Pakistan. So far in this module, we have explored the concepts of state formation, Divine Right Theory and religion-based states. The aim of this milestone is to review case studies of countries which have been formed based on religion and how religion plays an important role in the day to day functioning of these countries, even if they are democratic.

Method: Follow the case study method of explanation. Use at least 15 scholarly articles and research papers published after 2008.

Structure: To achieve this milestone, prepare a 1500 words article in the following structure.

• Introduction: Explain briefly the existence of religious justifications in the political actions of many countries. Then introduce the article aim.
• Role of religion in modern states: Here, introduce the states which have been formed based on religion and the role played by religion in the political activities of the states. This will be a completely theoretical work. So, the strength of the study will be the sources that are chosen as the most relevant case studies for this work.
• God over politics in Case country 1- this section will contain a discussion of:
  • How the state was formed on the basis of religion
  • The belief that God’s will is supreme and dominates the political ambience in the country even today
  • Show how the divine right theory is manipulated and used in their political fabric. Then discuss how this approach benefits the people in power in these countries.
• God over politics in Case country 2- this section will contain a discussion of:
  • How the state was formed on the basis of religion
  • The belief that God’s will is supreme and dominates the political ambience in the country even today
  • Show how the divine right theory is manipulated and used in their political fabric. Then discuss how this approach benefits the people in power in these countries.
• God over politics in Case country 3- this section will contain a discussion of:
  • How the state was formed on the basis of religion
  • The belief that God’s will is supreme and dominates the political ambience in the country even today
  • Show how the divine right theory is manipulated and used in their political fabric. Then discuss how this approach benefits the people in power in these countries.
• God over politics in Case country 4- this section will contain a discussion of:
  • How the state was formed on the basis of religion
  • The belief that God’s will is supreme and dominates the political ambience in the country even today
  • Show how the divine right theory is manipulated and used in their political fabric. Then discuss how this approach benefits the people in power in these countries.
• Conclusion: The gist that you get from the critical analysis of the case studies will be presented here. Summarize the key findings
• References

Note: Use figures, diagrams and tables wherever possible. Do not copy-paste them from any source.

 

Note 1: This milestone cannot be achieved until all the milestones in Goal 1 are completed.

Note 2: This milestone will reflect on the concepts and case studies discussed in Goal 1 milestones. Therefore, read them to understand the context of this milestone.

Note 3: This milestone involves preparing a survey questionnaire.

Note 4: Prior experience in making conceptual frameworks and questionnaires is mandatory.

Aim: This is the concluding milestone of Goal 1 of the study on ‘Gender divide as justification of state formation through divine rights: A case study. Overall, the goal is to explain how the politics of states formed on the basis of religion (examples include Pakistan, Iran, Israel) impact human rights in those countries as well as their neighbouring countries. The purpose of this milestone is to create a conceptual framework diagram which shows:

• Characteristics of politics in states formed on the basis of Divine Right Theory OR religion (independent variable)
• Their impact on human rights (dependent variable)

 

About the questionnaire: Primary data collection is going to take place in the form of survey. We target 150 people from the case countries which were discussed in the final milestone of Goal 1, i.e. ‘God over politics in state formation in the 21st century: case studies’. These people will be presented a close-ended multiple choice questionnaire.

This questionnaire will be based on scales. Remember that this questionnaire must have Likert scale so that correlation and regression test can be performed. It will contain questions reflecting:

• The political state of affairs in their country
• How religion or the Divine Right Theory reflects in their country’s politics
• How religion/ Divine Right Theory is impacting human rights in their country as well as their neighbouring countries. It must include questions on:
  • Religious minorities
  • LGBTQ
  • Migrants and refugees
  • Prisoners
  • Women

Method: Apply the theories you know about research methodology and conceptual framework. You need to reflect on the following approaches:

• Types of data used (qualitative & quantitative)
• Target respondent profile (explaining the characteristics of the chosen population including their demographic background)
• Sampling process (sample size calculation, sampling type like probability sampling in case of survey and purposive sampling in case of interviews)
• Questionnaire (scales used, development process, and administration process)
• Data collection process (how the respondents were identified, where they were approached, how many rounds of data collection took place)
• Data analysis process (SPSS for survey data analysis)

Use references to support and justify your approaches.

Structure: to achieve this milestone, write a 1200 words article in the following structure.

• Introduction- summarise the findings from all the previous milestones in Goal 1. Then talk about Goal 2. Do not copy-paste anything. It must be a constructive synthesis rather than repasting.
• Conceptual framework DIAGRAM for showing the relationship between independent and dependent variable
• Explanatory paragraph for the diagram: explain your dependent variables, independent variable
• Hypotheses: draw two hypotheses from the diagrams. They must be in null (H0) and alternate (H1) format.
• Introduction to our chosen primary methodology (Avoid writing about the meaning and definitions of concepts like ‘primary data’, ‘probability sampling’ etc. Stick to the justification of your approach only.)
• Data type used (Quantitative)
• Target population profile
• Sampling method
  • Sample size calculation
  • Sampling type (purposive and random)
• Data collection process
• Data analysis method (frequency analysis and correlation/ regression using SPSS)
• Concluding paragraph: Summarize the key findings
• References

 

Note 1: This milestone cannot be achieved until all the previous milestones in Goal 1 and Goal 2 have been completed.

Note 2: This milestone involves survey dataset preparation in MS Excel based on Google Forms. Missing values, outliers, etc. need to be cleaned. Therefore prior experience in data processing is mandatory.

Note 3: This milestone involves data testing in SPSS. Therefore it is mandatory to have SPSS (trial version or latest version) software and knowledge of how to use it.

Note 4: This milestone cannot be achieved until all 150 survey responses are collected by the Module Creator. Please get in touch with your module creator for information about this.

Aim: The purpose of this milestone is to perform statistical test on survey data of 150 consumers to find out how religion or Divine Right theory is reflecting in their country’s politics and their impact on human rights.

Method: Follow the below steps to conduct statistical analysis on primary data of 150 survey respondents.

• Firstly, obtain access to the Google Forms of 150 survey respondents from the Module Creator. Then, extract the responses in MS Excel. Then, clean and process the data for final statistical testing.
• Secondly, run frequency analysis test using SPSS on the ‘demographic profile’ and ‘background information’ sections. Create pie charts.
• Thirdly, run the correlation tests on the data.
• Then, run the linear regression test on the data (with ‘politics in states formed on the basis of religion’ as the independent variable and ‘human rights situation’ as the dependent variable).

Structure: To achieve this milestone, present the findings from statistical test in the form of a 1500 words article following the below structure.

• Introduction- Reiterate the study hypotheses (refer to the milestone ‘A conceptual framework to understand the role of religion in politics’) and explain the sampled population and purpose of the survey.
• Background of the surveyed respondents- present their demographic profile and background information briefly. Use charts/ diagrams to present the findings. Avoid excessive words.
• Correlation analysis findings- use tables and detailed text explanations to show the correlations between the independent and the dependent variables.
• Regression analysis findings- use tables/ diagrams and text to show the linear regression test findings of the hypothesis.
• Inference of the findings- explain the linear regression findings in detail.
• Concluding paragraph- connect the findings to the original objectives of the study. Refer to the milestones in Goal 1 to comprehensively build the connection.
• References

Note: Use charts/ tables obtained from SPSS in this milestone. 

Note 2: Submit a zip folder containing article in word document format, dataset in MS Excel format and SPSS files

 

Note 1: This milestone cannot be achieved until all the previous milestones in Goal 1 and Goal 2 have been completed.

Aim: The purpose of the overall study was to find out how state which have been formed/ ruled on the basis of religion (eg. Israel and Pakistan) and states which were formed on the basis of Divine Right Theory (eg. Afghanistan) use religion to justify their political stance. It also aimed to show the impact of these politics on human rights. The purpose of this final milestone is to conclude the study by correlating the findings from our secondary study (Goal 1 milestones) and primary research (Goal 2 milestones).

Method: Go through all the previous milestones. Understand the findings of the primary and secondary data and connect them. Reflect on the surveyed participants’ views on how their country is treating the minorities.

Structure: To achieve this milestone, prepare a 1000 words article in the following structure.

• Introduction to the objectives of this study
• Discussion of findings from secondary data
• Discussion of findings from primary data in comparison to secondary data
• Divine rights theory as justification of Taliban terrorism in Afghanistan
• Gender divide as justification of state formation through divine rights in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and Iran)
• Religion as a justification for persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan
• Concluding paragraph- shed light on how this study can be taken further by other researchers. Also explain how the findings can be used to further our understanding of human rights issues in state formation in 21^st
• References