Chen, Daniel L. and Lind, Jo Thori (2016) The Political Economy of Beliefs: Why Fiscal and Social Conservatives/Liberals (Sometimes) Come Hand-in-Hand. TSE Working Paper, n. 16-722

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Abstract

Why are religious groups with greater within-group charitable giving more socially conservative and opposed to the welfare state? We propose and test a theory where religious provision of social insurance explains why fiscal and social conservatism align. The alignment disappears when there is a state church and reverses for members of a state church. This reversal is unlikely to be driven by omitted environmental variables: exogenous increases in church-state separation precede increases in the alignment between fiscal and social conservatism. The theory provides a novel explanation for religious history: as elites gain access to alternative social insurance, they judiciate increasing church-state separation to create a constituency for lower taxes. This holds if religious voters exceed non-religious voters, otherwise, elites prefer less church-state separation in order to curb the secular left, generating multiple steady states where some countries sustain high church-state separation, high religiosity, and low welfare state, and vice versa. We use this framework to explain the changing nature of religious movements, from Social Gospel to the Religious Right, and why church-state separation arose in the U.S. but not in many European countries.

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Language: English
Date: October 2016
Uncontrolled Keywords: Voting, Religion, Ideology, Church-State Separation, Welfare State
JEL Classification: D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions
D71 - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
D78 - Positive Analysis of Policy-Making and Implementation
I38 - Government Policy; Provision and Effects of Welfare Programs
Z12 - Religion
Subjects: B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE
Divisions: TSE-R (Toulouse)
Institution: Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole
Site: UT1
Date Deposited: 27 Oct 2016 09:26
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2021 13:36
OAI Identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:31129
URI: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/22462
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