State Religious Policy and Support for Democratic Processes

• In Event: The Politics of Church and State

Abstract

How does state religious policy affect religious practitioners’ relationship to democracy? Previous research suggests that government involvement in religious affairs can bolster support for government and undermine trust in religious institutions. Findings thus far, however, have not examined the relationship between religion, state, and society in the context of emergent democracies and democratic backsliding. In this paper, I argue that state religious policy is an important tool for control and influence in a nascent democratic context. I hypothesize that government support for religious institutions may increase religious practitioners’ support for democratic procedures while at the same time reduce support for consensus values. Likewise, government interference in religious institutions will have the opposite effect. This is because government support for religious institutions demonstrates clear pathways to political goals for religious practitioners, but also signals the effectiveness of a winner-take-all approach to politics; government interference, however, signals the opposite. I test this theory using multilevel panel data in European countries. Although I find robust support for the hypotheses, I also that regime durability and age of political parties reduces each reduce these effects. I further find that post-communist states show stronger effects on interference but weaker effects regarding support. Such findings demonstrate states’ capabilities of interfering with the religious market in both established and nascent democratic states. As such, they carry far-reaching implications for the study of religion in the context of emergent and backsliding democracies.

Author

• Brendan Szendro, McGill University