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" Traditional believers and democratic citizens. A contextualized analysis of the effects of religion on support for democracy in East Central Europe "
Bogdan Mihai Radu
C. J. Uhlaner
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Latin Dissertation
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| Language of Document
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English
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| Record Number
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53952
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| Doc. No
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TL23906
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| Call number
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3282813
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| Main Entry
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Bogdan Mihai Radu
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| Title & Author
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Traditional believers and democratic citizens. A contextualized analysis of the effects of religion on support for democracy in East Central Europe\ Bogdan Mihai Radu
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| College
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University of California, Irvine
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| Date
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2007
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| student score
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2007
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| Page No
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258
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| Abstract
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In this research, I explore the relationship between religion and democracy in Central and Eastern Europe. My goal is to find out in what ways belonging to a particular denomination and participation in church related activities influence societal support for democracy. Favorable attitudes towards democracy are critical for consolidating democracy, and understanding how religion contributes to their formation is important in establishing the role of religion in democratization. My major argument is the following: understanding the effect of religion and church in the formation of political attitudes in Central and Eastern Europe requires a careful analysis of the historical, political, social and cultural context in which religion acquired its status in society, and that also determined the strength of the relationship between church and state. I argue that the institutional embeddedness of religion and church is critically important when analyzing a church's ability and willingness to accommodate democracy. Therefore, I explore the effect of religious denomination, religiosity and religious participation on support for democracy in Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. These 14 countries combine different levels of democratic transition and consolidation, display very different configurations of religious composition, and are all members of the former communist block. I use World Value Surveys data in my quantitative analysis. The findings suggest that there is no denominational effect on pro-democratic attitudes. Orthodox and Muslim believers in Central and Eastern Europe are no more or less supportive of democracy than their Catholic or Protestant counterparts. Instead, I find that the historical relationship between church and state, and the different roles played by religion in society do play a role in a church's ability and willingness to accommodate democracy. Furthermore, I also find based on qualitative research in Romania that the features describing the relationship between church and state are in a permanent interaction with each other. This dynamic interplay of the different contextual features describing the relationship between church and state, limit the applicability of quantitative data and asks for contextualized analyses of the relationship between religion and politics.
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| Subject
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Social sciences; Democracy; Europe; National identity; Religion; Secularization; Political science; 0615:Political science
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| Added Entry
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C. J. Uhlaner
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University of California, Irvine
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