Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T04:09:06.336Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Strategic Behavior and Organizational Structure in Religions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2013

Abstract

Religions are organized in a variety of ways. They may resemble an elected autocracy, a parliamentary democracy or something akin to a monarchy, in which heredity plays a primary role. These differing power arrangements call for different types of strategic behavior in the fight for control of church doctrine and finances. They also induce different institutional responses. This article explains cases in which screening is highly institutionalized and when a person's age may be an important strategic factor in choosing a leader. It thus explains what otherwise would be very puzzling differences in the age of appointment across religions and within a particular religion, over time. The study also applies the methodology to politics more generally by looking at elections in Venice and Genoa in the eighteenth century and the appointment of leaders in present-day China.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Economics Department, University of California, Santa Cruz (email: [email protected]). I would like to thank Doug Allen, the referees and editor for very helpful comments. Data replication sets are available at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0007123413000161 and online appendices are available at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0007123413000161.

References

Allen, Douglas W. 1995. Order in the Church: A Property Rights Approach. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 27:97117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, Frederic J. 2003. Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, Smith, Alastair, Siverson, Randolph M. Morrow, James D.. 2004. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Colomer, Josep McLean, Iain. 1998. Electing Popes, Approval Balloting and Qualified-Majority Rule. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29:122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colmer, Josep, McLean, Iain Lorrey, Haidee. 2003. Social Choice in Medieval Europe. Histoire des Mathématiques Sociales.Google Scholar
Dotson, John. 2012. The China Rising Leader's Project, Part 1: The Chinese Communist Party and its Emerging Next Generation Leaders. U.S. – China Economic and Security Review Commission Staff Research Report.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Enelow, James M. Hinich, Melvin. 1982. Nonspatial Candidate Characteristics and Electoral Competition. Journal of Politics 44:115130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finke, Roger. 1997. The Consequences of Religious Competition: Supply-Side Explanations for Religious Change. In Rational Choice Theory and Religion, edited by Lawrence A. Young, 4564. New York: Routledge Press.Google Scholar
Giuriato, Luisa. 2009. Combining Autocracy and Majority Voting: The Canonical Succession Rules of the Latin Church. In The Political Economy of Theocracy, edited by Mario Ferrero and Ronald Wintrobe, 143166. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Jane. 2007. When Voters and Parties Agree: Valence Issues and Party Competition. Political Studies 55:629655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groseclose, Tim. 2001. A Model of Candidate Location When One Candidate Has a Valence Advantage. American Journal of Political Science 45:862886.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iannaccone, Laurence. 1988. A Formal Model of Church and Sect. American Journal of Sociology 94:241268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, Michael Meckling, William. 1976. Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure. Journal of Financial Economics 3:305360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lines, Marji. 1986. Approval Voting and Strategy Analysis: A Venetian Example. Theory and Decision 20:155172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacFarquhar, Roderick Schoenhals, Michael. 2006. Mao's Last Revolution. Cambridge: Belknap Harvard.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maltzman, Forrest, Schwartzber, Melissa Sigelman, Lee. 2006. Vox Populi, Vox Dei, Vox Sagittae. PS: Political Science and Politics 39:297301.Google Scholar
Manion, Melanie. 1993. Retirement of Revolutionaries in China: Public Policies, Social Norms, Private Interests. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mao, Wen Zech, Charles. 2002. Choices of Organizational Structures in Religious Organizations: a Game Theoretic Approach. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 47:5570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLean, Iain London, John. 1990. The Borda and the Condorcet Principles: Three Medieval Applications. Social Choice and Welfare 7:99108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Alice. 2013. The New Politburo Leadership. China Leadership Monitor 41:115.Google Scholar
Nathan, Andrew J. Gilley, Bruce. 2003. China's New Rulers: The Secret Files. New York: The New York Review of Books.Google Scholar
Norbu, Thubten Jigme Turnbull, Colin M.. 1968. Tibet: An Account of the History, the Religion and the People of Tibet. Reprint. New York: Touchstone Books.Google Scholar
Penton, James M. 1985. Apocalypse Delayed: The Story of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Pham, John-Peter. 2004. Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Reese, Thomas J. 1996. Inside the Vatican: The Politics and the Organization of the Catholic Church. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Serra, Gilles. 2010. Polarization of What? A Model of Elections with Endogenous Valence. The Journal of Politics 72:426437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shirk, Susan L. 2007. China: Fragile Superpower. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. 2012 [1776]. The Wealth of Nations. Hollywood, FL: Simon & Brown.Google Scholar
Stokes, Donald. 1992. Valence Politics. In Electoral Politics, edited by Dennis Kavanagh. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Tullock, Gordon. 1987. Autocracy. Boston: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Max. 1993 [1922]. The Sociology of Religion. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Wilde, Melissa J., Geraty, Kristin, Nelson, Shelley Bowman, Emily. 2010. Religious Economy or Organizational Field? Predicting Bishops’ Votes at the Second Vatican Council. American Sociological Review 75:586606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wintrobe, Ronald. 1998. The Political Economy of Dictatorship. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xiaoping, Deng. 1982. ‘Streamlining is a Revolution’ speech delivered before the CCP Politburo, Available from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/cpc2011/2011-03/25/content_12473700.htm, accessed 13 January 1982.Google Scholar
Young, Lawrence A. 1997 ed. Rational Choice Theory and Religion. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Wittman Supplementary Material

Appendix

Download Wittman Supplementary Material(PDF)
PDF 335.6 KB