Religiosity and voting: Experimental evidence

Autor principal:
Aina Gallego Dobón (Institut de Barcelona de Estudios Internacionales)
Programa:
Sesión 1
Día: jueves, 19 de septiembre de 2013
Hora: 09:00 a 11:30
Lugar: E10SEM9

 It is well-known that religious individuals tend to vote for the right in many countries. We argue that religiosity makes citizens more morally conservative, but that, contrary to some existing theories, it does not affect citizens' preferences on economic issues. In countries with majoritarian electoral systems and few political parties, policy bundling forces citizens with incongruent beliefs in the economic and moral issue dimensions to choose between two options. In these contexts, we expect many religious people to be "distracted" from their economic preferences and vote for the right. In other contexts, by contrast, there are more viable political alternatives and  cross-pressured citizens do not need to choose between their moral and economic preferences. Religiosity, in short, need not increase the likelihood of voting for right-wing parties. Rather, the relationship depends on the electoral system. This paper will examine these arguments using data from three survey experiments conducted in the US.

Palabras clave: Religion, political behavior, preferences for redistribution