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Micro-Foundations of Religion and Public Goods Provision: Belief, Belonging, and Giving in Catholicism and Islam

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 November 2015

Ramazan Kılınç  and
Carolyn M. Warner
Ramazan Kılınç*
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Carolyn M. Warner*
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Ramazan Kılınç, University of Nebraska at Omaha. 6001 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE 68182. E-mail: [email protected]; or Carolyn M. Warner, Arizona State University, 975 S. Myrtle Ave., Tempe, AZ 85287-3902. E-mail: [email protected]
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Ramazan Kılınç, University of Nebraska at Omaha. 6001 Dodge Street, Omaha, NE 68182. E-mail: [email protected]; or Carolyn M. Warner, Arizona State University, 975 S. Myrtle Ave., Tempe, AZ 85287-3902. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

While debates continue about the relationship between state-provided social welfare and religious charities, and whether organized religions are more capable of providing social welfare than is the public sector, less attention has focused on the question of what motivates religious adherents to contribute to the charitable work of their religions. In this article, we examine how adherents of Catholicism and Islam understand their generosity and its relationship to their faith. Through 218 semi-structured interviews with Catholics and Muslims in four cities in France, Ireland, Italy, and Turkey, we find systematic differences between the two religions. Catholics emphasize love of others and Muslims emphasize duty to God. We also find, contrary to expectations of the literature that emphasizes monitoring and sanctioning within groups to obtain cooperation, that Catholics and Muslims see their generosity as also motivated by the positive affect they feel towards their respective communities.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 718 - 744
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

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