Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T22:33:34.309Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Religion and inequality: the lasting impact of religious traditions and institutions on welfare state development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2014

Jason Jordan
Jason Jordan*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor,Department of Political Science, Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, USA
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A strong correlation exists between inequality and religion, such that societies marked by high inequality are more religious than those with more egalitarian income distributions. What explains this correlation? Insecurity theory argues that high inequality generates intense insecurities, leading the poor to seek shelter in religion for both psychological and material comfort. This article develops an alternative perspective that reverses the chain of causality. It argues that religious institutions and movements frequently resist both the centralization of state power and socialist efforts to organize the working class. As a result, powerful religious movements constrain state-led efforts to provide social protection, increasing income inequality. Analysis of the historical record and contemporary data from 19 Western democracies reveals strong evidence that past periods of church-state conflict shaped the size and structure of welfare state institutions and, by extension, contemporary patterns of inequality.

Keywords

religioninequalitywelfare stateinsecurity theory
Type
Research Article
Information
European Political Science Review , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , February 2016 , pp. 25 - 48
Copyright
© European Consortium for Political Research 2014 

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.)

References

Anderson, K.M. (2009), ‘The church as nation? the role of religion in the development of the swedish welfare state’, in K.V. Kersbergen and P. Manow (eds), Religion, Class Coalitions, and Welfare States , New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 210–235.Google Scholar
Barber, N. (2013), ‘Country religiosity declines as material security increases’, Cross-Cultural Research 47: 42–50.Google Scholar
Berger, P.L. (1999), ‘The desecularization of the world: a global overview’, in P.L. Berger (ed.), The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., pp. 1–18.Google Scholar
Brodman, J. (2009), Charity & Religion in Medieval Europe, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar
Bruce, S. (2002), God is Dead: Secularization in the West, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Catterall, P. (1993), ‘Morality and politics, the free churches and the labor-party between the wars’, Historical Journal 36: 667–685.Google Scholar
Cousins, M. (1997), ‘Ireland’s place in the worlds of welfare capitalism’, Journal of European Social Policy 7: 223–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davie, G. (1990), ‘‘An ordinary god’: the paradox of religion in contemporary Britain’, The British Journal of Sociology 41: 395–421.Google Scholar
De La O, A.L. and Rodden, J.A. (2008), ‘Does religion distract the poor? income and issue voting around the world’, Comparative Political Studies 41: 437–476.Google Scholar
Dobbelaere, K. (2004), ‘Religion in modernity’, in A. Crockett and R. O’Leary (eds), Patterns and Processes of Religious Change in Modern Industrial Societies: Europe and the United States, Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, pp. 139–164.Google Scholar
Elgin, C., Goksel, T., Gurdal, M.Y. and Orman, C. (2013), ‘Religion, income inequality, and the size of the government’, Economic Modelling 30: 225–234.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990), The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Ferrera, M. (1996), ‘The ‘southern model’ of welfare in social Europe’, Journal of European Social Policy 6: 17–37.Google Scholar
Fink, S. (2009), ‘Churches as societal veto players: religious influence in actor-centred theories of policy-making’, West European Politics 32: 77–96.Google Scholar
Fox, J. and Tabory, E. (2008), ‘Contemporary evidence regarding the impact of state regulation of religion on religious participation and belief’, Sociology of Religion 69: 245–271.Google Scholar
Gal, J. (2010), ‘Is there an extended family of Mediterranean welfare states?’, Journal of European Social Policy 20: 283–300.Google Scholar
Gill, A. and Lundsgaarde, E. (2004), ‘State welfare spending and religiosity a cross-national analysis’, Rationality and Society 16: 399–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greeley, A. (2004), ‘A religious revival in Europe?’, in A. Crockett and R. O’Leary (eds), Patterns and Processes of Religious Change in Modern Industrial Societies: Europe and the United States, Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, pp. 165–189.Google Scholar
Huber, E. and Stephens, J.D. (2001), Development and Crisis of the Welfare State: Parties and Policies in Global Markets, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Huber, E., Ragin, C. and Stephens, J.D. (1993), ‘Social-democracy, christian democracy, constitutional structure, and the welfare-state’, American Journal of Sociology 99: 711–749.Google Scholar
Iannaccone, L.R. (2003), ‘Looking backwards: a cross-national study of religious trends’. Working Paper. George Mason University.Google Scholar
Immerzeel, T. and Van Tubergen, F. (2013), ‘Religion as reassurance? Testing the insecurity theory in 26 European countries’, European Sociological Review 29: 359–372.Google Scholar
Iversen, T. and Soskice, D. (2006), ‘Electoral institutions and the politics of coalitions: why some democracies redistribute more than others’, American Political Science Review 100: 165–181.Google Scholar
Kahl, S. (2005), ‘The religious roots of modern poverty policy: catholic, lutheran, and reformed protestant traditions compared’, European Journal of Sociology 46: 91–126.Google Scholar
Kahl, S. (2009), ‘Religious doctrines and poor relief: a different causal pathway’, in K.V. Kersbergen and P. Manow (eds), Religion, Class Coalitions, and Welfare States, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 267–296.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, S.N. and Van Kersbergen, K. (2010), ‘Christian democracy’, Annual Review of Political Science 13: 183–209.Google Scholar
Karakoç, E. and Baskan, B. (2012), ‘Religion in politics: how does inequality affect public secularization’, Comparative Political Studies 45: 1510–1541.Google Scholar
Korpi, W. and Palme, J. (2003), ‘New politics and class politics in the context of austerity and globalization: welfare state regress in 18 countries, 1975-95’, American Political Science Review 97: 425–446.Google Scholar
Lynch, J. (2009), ‘Italy: a christian democratic or clientelist welfare state?’, in K.V. Kersbergen and P. Manow (eds), Religion, Class Coalitions, and Welfare States, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 91–118.Google Scholar
Manow, P. (2004), ‘The good, the bad, and the ugly: Esping-Andersen’s regime typology and the religious roots of the western welfare state’. MPIfG Working Paper No. 3, Cologne.Google Scholar
Manow, P. (2009), ‘Electoral rules, class coalitions and welfare state regimes, or how to explain Esping-Andersen with Stein Rokkan’, Socio-Economic Review 7: 101–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manow, P. (2013), ‘Religious cleavages, divisions on the left and the political economy of Southern Europe’, International Journal of Social Quality 3: 78–105.Google Scholar
Manow, P. and Palier, B. (2009), ‘A conservative welfare state regime without chiristan democracy? The French état-providence, 1880-1960’, in K. Van Kersbergen and P. Manow (eds), Religion, Class Coalitions, and Welfare States, Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 146–175.Google Scholar
Mavrogordatos, G.T. (2003), ‘Orthodoxy and nationalism in the Greek case’, West European Politics 26: 117–136.Google Scholar
Mcleod, H. (1981), Religion and the People of Western Europe 1789-1970, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Minkenberg, M. (2010), ‘Party politics, religion and elections in Western democracies’, Comparative European Politics 8: 385–414.Google Scholar
Mujal‐León, E. (1982), ‘The left and the catholic question in Spain’, West European Politics 5: 32–54.Google Scholar
Norris, P. and Inglehart, R. (2004), Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide, Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Obinger, H. and Wagschal, U. (2001), ‘Families of nations and public policy’, West European Politics 24: 99–114.Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (1993), ‘When effect becomes cause: policy feedback and political change’, World Politics 45: 595–628.Google Scholar
Pontusson, J. and Rueda, D. (2010), ‘The politics of inequality: voter mobilization and left parties in advanced industrial states’, Comparative Political Studies 43: 675–705.Google Scholar
Pérez-Agote, A. (2010), ‘Religious change in Spain’, Social Compass 57: 224–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawlyk, G. (1995), ‘Religion in Canada: a historical overview’, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 538: 131–142.Google Scholar
Ruiter, S. and Van Tubergen, F. (2009), ‘Religious attendance in cross‐national perspective: a multilevel analysis of 60 countries’, American Journal of Sociology 115: 863–895.Google Scholar
Scheve, K. and Stasavage, D. (2006), ‘Religion and preferences for social insurance’, Quarterly Journal of Political Science 1: 255–286.Google Scholar
Solt, F. (2009), ‘Standardizing the world income inequality database’, Social Science Quarterly 90: 231–242.Google Scholar
Stark, R. and Finke, R. (2000), Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion, Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Stephens, J.D. (1980), The Transition from Capitalism to Socialism, Atlantic Highlands, N J: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Swank, D. (2006), ‘Electoral, Legislative, and Government Strength of Political Parties by Ideological Group in Capitalist Democracies, 1950–2006: A Database’. Electronic Database, Department of Political Science, Marquette University, http://www.marquette.edu/polisci/faculty_swank.shtml.Google Scholar
Van Kersbergen, K. and Manow, P. (eds) (2009), Religion, Class Coalitions, and Welfare States, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Van Oorschot, W. (2007), ‘Culture and social policy: a developing field of study’, International Journal of Social Welfare 16: 129–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilcox, C. and Jelen, T.G. (2002), ‘Religion and politics in an open market: religious mobilization in the united states’, in T.G. Jelen and C. Wilcox (eds), Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective: The One, the Few, and the Many, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 289–313.Google Scholar