Heaven on Earth: Explaining religious party formation and strength

<p>Why do some countries have religious political parties while others do not? And why are religious parties electorally successful in some places but flop at the ballot box in others? This dissertation provides a holistic, integrated explanation of religious party development. Religious parti...

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Hlavní autor: Fernandes Rebelo, M
Další autoři: Bermeo, N
Médium: Diplomová práce
Jazyk:English
Vydáno: 2020
Témata:
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author Fernandes Rebelo, M
author2 Bermeo, N
author_facet Bermeo, N
Fernandes Rebelo, M
author_sort Fernandes Rebelo, M
collection OXFORD
description <p>Why do some countries have religious political parties while others do not? And why are religious parties electorally successful in some places but flop at the ballot box in others? This dissertation provides a holistic, integrated explanation of religious party development. Religious parties are formed defensively, in reaction to anticlerical campaigns by state-builders to wrest control of public services like education, poor relief, and healthcare, from religious providers. Once they are formed, the strength of religious parties is determined by the infrastructural power of the state. Weak states that fail to provide adequate public services open up space for religious communities to build a dense civil society network of private schools, hospitals, and charities. Recipients of religious largesse then support confessional parties at the ballot box. By contrast, strong states that provide efficient public services squeeze out private providers of welfare, undermining the electoral strength of religious political parties. I find strong empirical support for this argument in a statistical analysis of religious party formation and strength, using a new dataset on all religious parties that participated in national parliamentary elections between 1800 and 2015. Comparative historical analyses of Québec, Spain, Italy, France, Albania, and Turkey, also back my theoretical arguments. My findings have important implications for the literature on party formation, voting, state-building, and private welfare provision.</p>
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spelling oxford-uuid:80c49c0c-e87b-4be5-8bd4-33644e1438c32022-03-26T21:25:41ZHeaven on Earth: Explaining religious party formation and strengthThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:80c49c0c-e87b-4be5-8bd4-33644e1438c3Political scienceReligion and politicsEnglishHyrax Deposit2020Fernandes Rebelo, MBermeo, N<p>Why do some countries have religious political parties while others do not? And why are religious parties electorally successful in some places but flop at the ballot box in others? This dissertation provides a holistic, integrated explanation of religious party development. Religious parties are formed defensively, in reaction to anticlerical campaigns by state-builders to wrest control of public services like education, poor relief, and healthcare, from religious providers. Once they are formed, the strength of religious parties is determined by the infrastructural power of the state. Weak states that fail to provide adequate public services open up space for religious communities to build a dense civil society network of private schools, hospitals, and charities. Recipients of religious largesse then support confessional parties at the ballot box. By contrast, strong states that provide efficient public services squeeze out private providers of welfare, undermining the electoral strength of religious political parties. I find strong empirical support for this argument in a statistical analysis of religious party formation and strength, using a new dataset on all religious parties that participated in national parliamentary elections between 1800 and 2015. Comparative historical analyses of Québec, Spain, Italy, France, Albania, and Turkey, also back my theoretical arguments. My findings have important implications for the literature on party formation, voting, state-building, and private welfare provision.</p>
spellingShingle Political science
Religion and politics
Fernandes Rebelo, M
Heaven on Earth: Explaining religious party formation and strength
title Heaven on Earth: Explaining religious party formation and strength
title_full Heaven on Earth: Explaining religious party formation and strength
title_fullStr Heaven on Earth: Explaining religious party formation and strength
title_full_unstemmed Heaven on Earth: Explaining religious party formation and strength
title_short Heaven on Earth: Explaining religious party formation and strength
title_sort heaven on earth explaining religious party formation and strength
topic Political science
Religion and politics
work_keys_str_mv AT fernandesrebelom heavenonearthexplainingreligiouspartyformationandstrength