Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T18:14:37.414Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Religion and Support for Democracy: A Comparative Study for Catholic and Muslim Countries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2012

Man-Li Gu  and
Eduard J. Bomhoff
Man-Li Gu*
Affiliation:
Monash University Sunway Malaysia
Eduard J. Bomhoff*
Affiliation:
Monash University Sunway Malaysia
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Man-Li Gu, Monash University Sunway Malaysia, Malaysia School of Business, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway 46150, Selangor Malaysia. E-mail: mlgu2@student.monash.edu and mary_gml@yahoo.com; or Eduard J. Bomhoff, Monash University Sunway Malaysia, Malaysia School of Business, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway 46150, Selangor Malaysia. E-mail: eduard.bomhoff@monash.edu
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Man-Li Gu, Monash University Sunway Malaysia, Malaysia School of Business, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway 46150, Selangor Malaysia. E-mail: mlgu2@student.monash.edu and mary_gml@yahoo.com; or Eduard J. Bomhoff, Monash University Sunway Malaysia, Malaysia School of Business, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway 46150, Selangor Malaysia. E-mail: eduard.bomhoff@monash.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article presents a cross-country empirical analysis of the relationship between religion and political attitudes among the Catholic and Muslim publics, using the most recent data from the World Values Survey. We find that public support for democracy is stronger among the better educated in both the Catholic and Muslim countries. Contrary to the conventional belief that pious believers are less receptive to democracy, individual religiosity, measured by belief in God, is found to have a significant positive impact on desire for democracy in both types of society. Our findings further indicate that at the societal level, overt support for democracy is consistently positively correlated to the attachment of a set of more implicit tolerant civil values in Catholic-majority countries, while exactly the opposite is observed in Muslim-majority countries.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , August 2012 , pp. 280 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2012

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

REFERENCES

Abdel Fattah, M.B.M. 2004. “Islam and Democracy: An Empirical examination of Muslims' Political Culture.” Ph.D dissertation. Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University.Google Scholar
Afkhami, R. 2008. “Fundamentalism-Reformism; Divergence in Iranian Shiite context.” Presented at International Conference on Representing Islam-Comparative Perspective, September 5–6, 2008. Manchester, UK: University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Al-Braizat, F. 2002. “Muslims and Democracy: An Empirical Critique of Fukuyama's Culturalist Approach.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 43:269–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ben-Nun Bloom, P., and Arikan, G.. 2009. “Religiosity as Affecting Ambivalence in Democratic Attitudes.” http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p364271_index.html (Accessed on September 21, 2010).Google Scholar
Bratton, M., and Mattes, R.. 2000. “Support for Democracy in Africa: Intrinsic or Instrumental?” http://www.afrobarometer.org/papers/AfropaperNo1.pdf (Accessed on February 12, 2009).Google Scholar
Canetti-Nisim, D. 2004. “The Effect of Religiosity on Endorsement of Democratic Values: The Mediating Influence of Authoritarianism.” Political Behavior 26:377–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency. 2008. “The World Factbook” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook (Accessed on January 4, 2009).Google Scholar
Chandler, J.P. 2006. “Cross National Survey Research on Islamic Publics: Recent Findings.” http://www.jamiechandler.com/PDFDocuments/islamic.pdf (Accessed on February 3, 2009).Google Scholar
Clingingsmith, D., Khwaja, A.I., and Kremer, M.. 2008. “Estimating the Impact of the Hajj: Religion and Tolerance in Islam's Global Gathering.” http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1124213 (Accessed on November 26, 2008).Google Scholar
Dalton, R.J., and Shin, D.C.. 2003. “Democratic Aspiration and Democratic Ideals: Citizen Orientations toward Democracy in East Asia.” Paper presented at the conference on Citizen, Democracy and Markets around the Pacific Rim. Honolulu, HI: East West Centre.Google Scholar
Dalton, R.J., Shin, D.C., and Jou, W.. 2007. “Understanding Democracy: Data from Unlikely Places.” http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~rdalton/archive/jod07.pdf (Accessed on September 20, 2009).Google Scholar
Ellison, C.G., and Musick, M.A.. 1993. “Southern Intolerance: A Fundamental effect?” Social Forces 72:379–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esmer, Y. 2003. “Is There an Islamic Civilization?” In Human Values and Social Change: Findings from Values Surveys, ed. Inglehart, Ronald. Boston, MA: Brill, pp. 35–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esposito, J.L. and Mogahed, D.. 2008. “Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.” http://www.gallup.com/press/104209/Who-Speaks-Islam-What-Billion-Muslims-Really-Think.aspx (Accessed on September 3, 2009).Google Scholar
Faqir, F. 1997. “Engendering Democracy and Islam in the Arab World.” Third World Quarterly 18:165–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fish, M.S. 2002. “Islam and Authoritarianism.” World Politics 55:4–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flanagan, S.C., and Lee, A.. 2000. “Value Change and Democratic Reform in Japan and Korea.” Comparative Political Studies 33:626–659.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fukuyama, F. 2001. “The West Has Won: Radical Islam Can't Beat Democracy and Capitalism.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/11/afghanistan.terrorism30 (Accessed on November 23, 2008).Google Scholar
Glaeser, E.L., Ponzetto, G.A.M., and Shleifer, A.. 2007. “Why Does Democracy Need Education?” Journal of Economic Growth 12:77–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, S.P. 1993. “The Clash of Civilization?” Foreign Affairs 72:22–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R. 2003. “How Solid is Mass Support for Democracy: And How Can We Measure It?” Political Science and Politics 36:51–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inglehart, R., and Norris, P.. 2004. Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R., and Welzel, C.. 2005. Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
International Monetary Fund. 2008. “World Economic Outlook Database, April.” http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2008/01/weodata/index.aspx (Accessed on July 18, 2008).Google Scholar
Karpov, V. 2002. “Religiosity and Tolerance in the United States and Poland.” http://www.jstor.org/stable/1388008 (Accessed on May 30, 2008).Google Scholar
Kekic, L. 2007. “The Economist Intelligence Unit's index of democracy.” http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/Democracy_Index_2007_v3.pdf (Accessed on July 15, 2008).Google Scholar
Kubba, L. 1996. “Islam and Liberal Democracy: Recognizing Pluralism.” Journal of Democracy 7:86–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leak, G.K., and Randall, B.A.. 1995. “Clarification of the Link Between Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Religiousness: The Role of Religious Maturity.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 34:245–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, B. 1996. “Islam and Liberal Democracy: A Historical Overview.” Journal of Democracy 7:52–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, S.M. 1959. “Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy.” The American Political Science Review 53:69–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Najjar, F.M. 1958. “Islam and Modern Democracy.” The Review of Politics 20:164–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nathan, A.J. 2007. “Political Culture and Diffuse Regime Support in Asia.” Asia Barometer Working Paper Series 43:1–38.Google Scholar
Putnam, R. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Tradition in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rice, T.W., and Feldman, J.L.. 1997. “Civic Cultures and Democracy from Europe to America.” The Journal of Politics 59:1143–1172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rizzo, H., Abdel-Latif, A.H., and Meyer, K.. 2007. “The Relationship between Gender Equality and Democracy: A Comparison of Arab versus Non-Arab Muslim Societies.” The Journal of the British Sociological Association 41:1151–1170.Google Scholar
Rose, R. 2002. “How Muslims View Democracy: Evidence from Central Asia.” Journal of Democracy 13:102–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, M.L. 2001. “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” World Politics 53:325–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rowley, C.K., and Smith, N.. 2009. “Islam's Democracy Paradox: Muslim Claim to like Democracy, So Why Do They Have So Little?” Public Choice 139:273–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, X. 2004. “Education and Gender Egalitarianism: The Case of China.” Sociology of Education 77:311–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiber, S.R. 1980. “The Influence of the Religion Factor on Civil and Sacred Tolerance, 1958-71.” Social Forces 58:811–832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taagepera, R. 2003. “Prospects for Democracy in Islamic Countries.” http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4j0660w5 (Accessed on November 16, 2008).Google Scholar
Tajfel, H., and Turner, J.C.. 1986. “The Social Identify Theory of Inter-group behavior.” In Psychology of Intergroup Relations, eds. Worchel, S., and Austin, L.W.. Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall.Google Scholar
Tan, J.H.W. 2006. “Religion and Social Preferences: An Experimental Study.” Economics Letters 90:60–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tessler, M. 2003. “Do Islamic Orientations Influence Attitudes Toward Democracy in the Arab World? Evidence from the World Values Surveys in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Algeria.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 2:229–249.Google Scholar
Tessler, M., Moaddel, M., and Inglehart, R.. 2006. “Getting to Arab Democracy: What Kind of Democracy Do Iraqis Want?” Journal of Democracy 17:38–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Pew Global Attitudes Project. 2005. “Iraqi Vote Mirrors Desire for Democracy in Muslim World.” http://people-press.org/commentary/?analysisid=107 (Accessed on January 3, 2008).Google Scholar
Vermunt, J., and Magdison, J.. 2004. “Latent Class Models.” http://www.statisticalinnovations.com/articles/sage11.pdf (Accessed on July 2, 2008).Google Scholar
Vermunt, J.K., and Magdison, J.. 2005. Latent GOLD 4.0 User's Guide. Belmont, MA: Statistical Innovations Inc.Google Scholar
Welzel, C. 2006. “Democratization in the Human Development Perspective.” http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs/articles/folder_published/publication_574 (Accessed on October 23, 2010).Google Scholar
Welzel, C. 2009. “Theories of Democratization.” http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs/articles/folder_published/publication_579 (Accessed on January 2, 2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, K.-Y., and Won, P.-S.. 2009. “New Evidence of the Postmaterialist Shift: The experience of Hong Kong.” Social Indicators Research 92:497–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamaguchi, K. 2000. “Multinomial Logit Latent-Class Regression Models: An Analysis of the Predictors of Gender-Role Attitudes among Japanese Women.” The American Journal of Sociology 105:1702–1740.CrossRefGoogle Scholar