infonet-economy

Religion has often been found to be a strong predictor of political behaviour (Broughton and ten Napel, 2000; Lijphart, 1979; Lipset and Rokkan, 1967; Rose and Urwin, 1969; Rokkan, 1979; Tresch and Nicolet, 2010). Alongside social class and place of residence, religion was thought to be one of the primary sociological determinants of political behaviour and, especially, voting (Lazarsfeld et al., 1944; Converse, 1974). However, during the past few decades, it has become almost commonplace to stress the declining saliency of the religious cleavage and its diminishing impact on politics. In particular, a number of authors have pointed to the loss of influence of religion on voting and political attitudes (Dalton et al., 1984; Franklin, 1992; Norris and Inglehart, 2004). This diminished relevance would be the outcome of a process of secularization that has affected the entire western world (Berger, 1967; Bruce, 2002). At the same time, a process of individualization has produced a change in the forms of religious expression (Hervieu-Léger, 1999; Luckmann, 1967; Pollack and Pickel, 2007), leading to post-traditional forms of religiosity.