Abstract
States support religion to varying extents. What is the effect of state support for religion on generalized social trust? The majority of previous studies of religion and social trust focus on individual-level factors, and none examines the impact of state support for religion. We argue that when a state chooses to support the majority religion, this creates increased levels of doctrinal homogeneity and conformity, which, in turn, cause higher levels of social trust within the majority religion. Drawing upon the Religion and State and World Values Survey datasets, we find that state support for religion is associated with higher levels of social trust.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 322-342 |
| Number of pages | 21 |
| Journal | Political Studies |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2022.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant 23/14), The German-Israel Foundation (Grant 1291-119.4/2015) and the John Templeton Foundation. Any opinions expressed in this study are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the supporters of this research.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| German–Israel Foundation | 1291-119.4/2015 |
| John Templeton Foundation | |
| Israel Science Foundation | 23/14 |
Keywords
- governance
- rational choice theory
- religion
- social trust