Culture War: Exploring the Backing from the Portuguese Catholic Church and Christian Movements to Populist Party Chega

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article entitled “Culture War: Exploring the influence of the Christian religion and Church backing on Populist parties” is an important contribution to the field of political science and also theology. First of all, it is important to emphasise the basic idea of this article. In explaining the Portuguese political context in the 21st century, the author has shown that the process of the spread of post-materialist values initiated by New Lef can be linked to the rise of right-wing parties in Western countries. In dialogue with a number of important scholars, the author has shown how the thoughts of Christians, and their theological positions can be used by right-wing parties as an argument against progressive agendas such as abortion, same-sex marriage, neutral toilets, LGBTQI+ rights, etc.

            Against this background, the author has analysed the Portuguese context from the referendum on abortion in 2007 to the present day, highlighting the political debate between the left-wing parties, the centre parties, and the right-wing parties. At the centre of the political debate, the author has considered the position of various groups in Portuguese society, such as the Catholic Church and some of its leaders, as it is possible to read below.

 

 

[…] then the research will employ a documentary analysis methodology, focusing on documents issued by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (PEC) and public interventions from the former Patriarch of Lisbon and President of PEC. This compilation will include a selection of pastoral notes, opening speeches, interviews, aiming to assess the Conference's stance on various social justice issues. Additionally, political speeches, party political program, or interviews originating from the populist right-wing party CHEGA will be subjected to scrutiny, as well as from other political factions, in a comprehensive examination featured in both print and digital media. This analysis involving leaders and activists within Christian circles, alongside representatives from the CHEGA party, will play a pivotal role in elucidating the intricate interplay of religious convictions within the political sphere, particularly within the right-wing populist faction" (p. 2).

 After explaining his methodological approach, the author delineates his main concept of “culture war" and shows how this concept is mobilised by the right-wing parties. I want to emphasise the link that exists between the conservative theology that emerged in the 19th century and the right-wing parties' critique of post-materialist ideas such as same-sex marriage. I think this connection should be improved and developed in other works.  

In the third and fourth parts of the article, the author develops an analysis of the contemporary cultural conflict between post-materialist and conservative thinking in the Portuguese context, taking into account the arguments on LGBTQI+ rights, abortion and same-sex marriage. In all cases, the author argues the link between this agenda and the rise of right-wing parties in Portugal, citing the case of CHEGA as an important example. It is important to emphasise that on page 11, the author quotes the “Political Manifesto” written by CHEGA, where one can read a summary of the ideas against the post-materialist ideas.

In my opinion, the article is an important contribution to political science research, as it is relevant to the political debate in various countries. Due to its high academic level, not only in the Portuguese political context, but also in several countries such as the USA, Brazil and Argentina, where similar debates are taking place.

 

 

 

Author Response

I appreciate the feedback received. After the other reviews, I made some changes.

Those changes are highlighted in blue color in the file.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The article has an interesting premise, by providing context to the rise of right-wing movements in Portugal.

There are some changes necessary:

-        The title is far too generic, it doesn’t even mention that the focus of the article is Portugal itself

-        The abstract is far too long and it doesn’t give a focus to the article; the mention to PiS made me think the article was supposed to be a general analysis of populist parties around the world; you could cut the number of words in one-third, even a half; the focus of the article is the Portuguese situation, you need to rewrite the abstract in order to reflect that

-        “Religion in Portugal” should be in the keywords

-        Resende (2022) is missing from references; upon further reading, a lot of references are missing from the reference list in the end; I know that the journal operates with a free form submission, so I can’t blame you, but the references are so disorganized that some are missing, it makes hard to check the references

-        There seems to be some words missing at the header “Culture war:”

-        On the cooperation between conservative and free-market liberals, see the introduction to “Nine lives of neoliberalism” (Plehwe, Slobodian, Mirowski, 2020; Biebricher, 2020) because, in theory, free-market liberals such as Millei and Iniciativa Liberal itself would tend to support expressions of gender identity and abortion and deny they are conservatives (Hayek wrote “Why I am not a conservative”, for example), but in practice, they’re willing to forfeit these points if a cooperation with conservatives can be ensured (Paramore, 2021); how Portuguese liberals solve this contradiction would be a good addition to the article

Out of these, I still have a few issues. I have to ask myself while reading the article why is te Portuguese Catholic Church so united in the conservative agenda? In Latin America, the Catholic Church was both a force of support and criticism of right-wing dictatorships. What made the Portuguese Catholic Church so ingrained in the conservative thought, that makes it one of the left’s greatest opponent and supporters of CHEGA? Was there any influence of neo-thomism (see Wink, 2023)?

References

Biebricher, Thomas. 2020. Neoliberalism and authoritarianism. Global Perspectives, 1(1): 11872.

Parramore, Lynn. 2021. Why Aren’t Libertarians Protesting the Freedom-Busting Texas Abortion Law? Institute for New Economic Thinking. https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/why-arent-libertarians-protesting-the-freedom-busting-texas-abortion-law

Plehwe, Dieter, Quinn Slobodian and Philip Mirowski. 2020. Introduction. In: Plehwe, Dieter, Quinn Slobodian and Philip Mirowski (eds.). Nine lives of neoliberalism. Verso. https://fulltext.versobooks.com/projects/nine-lives-of-neoliberalism

Wink, Georg. 2023. Angels at the Top, Rocks at the Bottom: Naturalized Inequality in Brazilian Conservative Thought. Social Sciences, 12(12): 692. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12120692

Comments on the Quality of English Language

English needs editing.

Author Response

I checked your comments regarding the article. I agree with pretty much all the comments and suggestions you made. 

1) I tried to be more specific in the title as it was probably too generic. 

2) I rewrote the abstract in order to highlight the focus of the research being the Portuguese context

3) I also added in the Keywords your suggestion

4) Indeed the reference from Resende (2022) was missing, and I added the reference in the bibliographic section

5) I did not understand what you meant with "missing words in the header of Culture War" - as such I did not follow this suggestion

6) I deleted the written part regarding "free-market liberals such as Millei and Iniciativa Liberal itself would tend to support expressions of gender identity and abortion and deny they are conservatives" - and maintained that some former members of Iniciativa Liberal manifested their opinions regarding the Culture War phenomenon and their discontent regarding what they call as "far-left cultural agenda"

7) Regarding your last point, the Portuguese Catholic Church clearly shows a conservative stance on social justice issues, however their support for Populist radical right, CHEGA is not evident, at least oficially and formally. They share the same positions regarding several social justice issues indeed, but there is not a formal alliance. This could be explained due to the historical allignemnt from the Portuguese Catholic Church to the Fascist regime decades ago, and as such, they try to distance themselves from similar political ideologies, as you suggested in Latin America.

8) I read the article and the reference suggested from Wink (2023) and added some good insights 

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript does not fulfill the basic requirements of a research article. The text progresses similarly to a novel or an essay in that it engages in verbose, although well and eloquently written, contextualization for the phenomenon of culture war in Portugal. There is no explicit research question formulated, and the data is presented in an excessively abstract manner:

“Moreover, in its preliminary stages, the research endeavors to delineate an operational connection between the philosophical foundations and framework underlying the genesis of progressive social justice policies. This endeavor employs documentary analysis of texts authored by various philosophers, primarily in the initial chapter focusing on Critical theory, as part of the investigative proces. Subsequently, the collection of information in the written press and online media is also used in the research. Moreover, then the research will employ a documentary analysis methodology, focusing on documents issued by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (PEC) and public interventions from the former Patriarch of Lisbon and President of PEC.

This compilation will include a selection of pastoral notes, opening speeches, interviews, aiming to assess the Conference's stance on various social justice issues. Additionally, political speeches, party political program, or interviews originating from the populist right-wing party CHEGA will be subjected to scrutiny, as well as from other political factions, in a comprehensive examination featured in both print and digital media.”

It is not relevant what the research is like in its preliminary stages. In order to be published, the research needs to be complete. A key concept like “critical theory” lacks references. The tone is passive. There are many typos. The data should be comprehensively listed, these and these documents, and preferably put in a table. But now the reader has no idea about the data analyzed. Is it 10 pages? 100 pages? 1000 pages? How was it selected? On what basis were some things included, and others not.

The argumentation is similar to this passage throughout the manuscript. The manuscript is interesting in its own right, and could be published outside scientific journals, but this is very clearly not going to be a research article.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

Beautiful, if somewhat pompous and unorthodox language. Some typos. The language is pretty good.

Author Response

I followed some of your advices. I formulated the article and you can clearly see now the research question(s) in the abstract and in the introductory section. Moreover, I improved the abstract section not only to clear the research question, but the final findings from the research. Furthermore, the conclusion section was improved in order to clearly state results regarding the research questions, thus the results are clearly presented. 

Nevertheless, I did not include the how many pages were analyzed, as I usually quoted or/and put the reference alongside in the data collection. The changes are highlighted in blue color.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

After reading the newest version, I do believe the authors have a better work in hands. I do see a few improvement potentials.

In reply to 1), I suggest adding the adjective Portuguese to “Catholic Church” in the title, to indicate

In reply to 2), I see that the abstract is improved, though I’d like to still suggest to shorten if possible. In my opinion, an abstract should be just one paragraph.

In reply to 5), you ended the header with a colon (“Culture war:), I thought the authors were meant to add something, especially with the curt header (like “Culture war: Origins and influence” or something).

In reply to 6), I understand, better leave to a future work.

I also would add a note explaining that “CHEGA” means, in Portuguese “Enough”, since it’s a pun that might be lost to non-Portuguese readers and it shows how this party claims to have had “enough” of the Left.

I suggested if there is any link to neo-thomism, but I didn’t expect for my suggestion to taken literally, what I was suggesting was to verify their influences and see if neo-thomism figured between them; I’d like to also suggest a note explaining what neo-thomism is and if the members of Chega or the PCC cite any philosopher affiliate to it. More broadly, is there any “intellectual leader” in Chega, like Olavo de Carvalho in Brazil?

Comments on the Quality of English Language

An additional revision of English would be useful.

Author Response

Thank you for the further feedback provided.

1. I seek clarification on the criterion "For empirical research, are the results clearly presented," as it appears to underlie your assessment of the article's need for improvement. I aim to comprehend this aspect in a more objective and precise manner to effectively address these concerns.

2. I intend to incorporate the term "Portuguese Catholic Church" for enhanced clarity and reader comprehension.

3. The suggestion to translate "Chega" (Enough!) is indeed valuable, as it will elucidate the rationale behind selecting this name for the party, signifying a form of protest against leftist ideologies.

4. Regarding the reference to neo-Thomism, it is pertinent to note that Portugal lacks a prominent intellectual figure akin to Olavo de Carvalho. Moreover, neither the Portuguese Catholic Church nor CHEGA explicitly reference neo-Thomist philosophers. However, their ideologies align with the doctrine, opposing more progressive Christian doctrines such as Liberation Theology and the Second Vatican Council. Thus, I seek guidance on whether to remove this point or expand upon it, potentially elucidating the doctrine's principles as you suggested.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The main problem with this manuscript is the presentation of empirical material, which is completely opaque. It is impossible to assess the validity of the argument without the empirical material being presented. Therefore, it does not meet the basic criteria for an article to be published in a scientific journal.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

 

Beautiful, if somewhat pompous and unorthodox language. Some typos. The language is pretty good.

 

Author Response

Appreciate the feedback.    I am seeking clarification on your statement regarding the manuscript's empirical material, specifically your assertion that it is "completely opaque." My question stems from the inclusion of "empirical materials", such as pastoral notes (e.g., PEC, 2015), which are citations from the pastoral notes published by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference (from the Portuguese Catholic Church) addressing the issues discussed in the article, namely sexual and gender rights. However, I am keen to gain a better understanding of your suggestion for improvement in this regard.      

Round 3

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The references are now more adequately cited, and the conclusions are now more based on the analysis rather than political commentary. The scientific merit overall remains low, as the empirical material used is not exhaustively listed and the selection criteria is not elucidated. While the analytical narrative is at times linked to the empirical material, large parts of the analysis do not address the data, but larger political developments external to the data. As such, the manuscript still maintains the essay-like quality that limits its empirical and scientific contribution to being distinctly low.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

A through language revision is still needed.