Openings to the Inclusion of Muslim Minorities in Today’s Democracies
ERC Consolidator Grant Awarded December 2020
Project Period: September 2021-August 2026
Grant: Euro 2 million
PI: Elisabeth Ivarsflaten, Professor of Political Science, University of Bergen
Democracies require a commitment, on the part of citizens, to uphold norms of tolerance and inclusion. The extent and depth of this commitment is a topic of enduring interest in political science. Previous research on this topic has by and large focused on exclusionary attitudes, and the factors that promote them. By all accounts, such attitudes are stable or in decline in the old democracies of Europe and North America. Despite this, the same countries have experienced increasing support for exclusionary politics and support for far right nativist parties. How can this be?
The inclusive politics project aims to answer this question by shifting analytical and empirical focus from the intolerant, who demand exclusion, to the tolerant, who profess a commitment to norms of inclusion. It is by understanding the terms on which the latter withdraw their support for inclusive politics, that we can understand the challenges currently facing democratic societies. Focusing on citizens’ openness to the inclusion of Muslim minorities, the project aims to:
- Take the research on inclusive politics in a new direction, expanding the scope of inquiry to inclusive as opposed to exclusionary attitudes
- Examine openness to Muslim inclusion across a broad range of themes and issues
- Identify and account for the limits of inclusion
- Test key implications of the terms model for the politics of inclusion
«This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement n° INCLUDE – 101001133 )».
For more information please see Articles 27.3, 28.2, 29.4, 38.1.2 of the ERC Model Grant Agreement for Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants (Multi- and Mono-Beneficiary) and for Proof-of-concept (Multi- and Mono-Beneficiary).