Challenging the secularist assumption: Religion, public policy and civil service culture

Abstract

The ‘resurgence’ of religion has led scholars and politicians to critique the ‘secularism’ of public policy. Using evidence from interviews with serving policy officials, this article explores the dimensions of ‘secularism’ as they have been applied to the UK policy context and makes two qualifications. First, I suggest that, rather than the ‘structural’ absence of religion in the last decade, often described as ‘marginalisation’ or ‘privatisation’, religion has repeatedly been relocated in relation to policy goals. Second, I challenge the theory of cultural secularisation expressed in terms of the ‘secular orientation’ of the policy making process and argue that cultural resistance to ‘doing religion’ within the permanent civil service cadre is less the result of a secular orientation and more of ‘religion blindness’, an attempt to demonstrate the ‘impartiality’ within which the civil service code requires non-elected officials to operate.