Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T10:02:30.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Religion and Secularism among American Party Activists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2016

Geoffrey C. Layman  and
Christopher L. Weaver
Geoffrey C. Layman*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Christopher L. Weaver*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Geoffrey C. Layman, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. E-mail: glayman@nd.edu; or to: Christopher L. Wever, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. E-mail: cweaver4@nd.edu
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Geoffrey C. Layman, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. E-mail: glayman@nd.edu; or to: Christopher L. Wever, Department of Political Science, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556. E-mail: cweaver4@nd.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Prior work has shown party activists and religious divisions to be two of the leading causes of party polarization in American politics. Using the Convention Delegate Studies, we examine the interaction between these two culprits and their impact on party polarization. We leverage a novel measure of secularism in the latest wave of the Convention Delegate Studies to demonstrate that active secularism is distinct both conceptually and statistically from low religiosity. Furthermore, we show that both religiosity and secularism drive party activists to take more extreme policy positions, to identify themselves as more ideologically extreme, and to exhibit less support for compromise. As the Democratic and Republican Parties have become more secular and religious, respectively, these results suggest religious polarization may compound existing divisions between the two parties and exacerbate the partisan divide in American politics.

Type
Symposium: The Politics of Religious Alliances
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 271 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abramowitz, Alan I., and Saunders, Kyle L.. 1998. “Ideological Realignment in the U.S. Electorate.” Journal of Politics 60:634–652.Google Scholar
Aldrich, John H. 1995. Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Andersen, T.W. 1957. “Maximum Likelihood Estimates for a Multivariate Normal Distribution When Some Observations are Missing.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 52:200–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aranson, Peter H., and Ordeshook, Peter C.. 1972. “Spatial Strategies for Sequential Elections.” In Probability Models of Collective Decision Making, eds. Niemi, Richard, and Weisberg, Herbert. Columbus, OH: Merrill.Google Scholar
Bawn, Kathleen, Cohen, Martin, Karol, David, Masket, Seth, Noel, Hans, and Zaller, John. 2012. “A Theory of Parties: Groups, Policy Demanders and Nominations in American Politics.” Perspectives on Politics 10:571–597.Google Scholar
Bentler, P.M. 1990. “Comparative fit indexes in structural models.” Psychological Bulletin 107:238–246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brewer, Mark D., and Stonecash, Jeffrey M.. 2007. Split: Class and Cultural Divides in American Politics. Washington, DC: CQ Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Browne, Mickael W., and Cudeck, Robert. 1993. “Alternative Ways of Assessing Model Fit.” In Testing Structural Equation Models, eds. Bollen, Kenneth A., and Long, J. Scott. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Brownstein, Ronald. 2007. The Second Civil War. New York, NY: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, David E., Layman, Geoffrey C., and Green, John C.. 2013. “The Politics of Irreligion: The Political Causes of Growing Secularism in America.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Chappell, Henry W. Jr., and Keech, William R.. 1986. “Policy Motivation and Party Differences in a Dynamic Spatial Model of Party Competition.” American Political Science Review 80:881–900.Google Scholar
Cohen, Marty, Karol, David, Noel, Hans, and Zaller, John. 2008. The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Matthew Daniel. 1993. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Matthew Daniel. 2005. Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the U.S. House of Representatives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Davis, Otto A., Hinich, Melvin, and Ordeshook, Peter C.. 1970. “An Expository Development of a Mathematical Model of the Electoral Process.” American Political Science Review 64: 426–448.Google Scholar
Dionne, E.J. Jr. 2004. Why Americans Hate Politics. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York, NY: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P., Abrams, Samuel J., and Pope, Jeremy C.. 2005. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America. New York, NY: Pearson Longman.Google Scholar
Green, Donald P., and Citrin, Jack. 1994. “Measurement Error and the Structure of Attitudes: Are Positive and Negative Judgments Opposites?” American Journal of Political Science 38:256–281.Google Scholar
Green, John C. 2007. The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences American Elections. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Green, John C., Guth, James L., Smidt, Corwin E., and Kellstedt, Lyman A.. 1996. Religion and the Culture Wars: Dispatches from the Front. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Green, John C., and Jackson, John S.. 2007. “Faithful Divides: Party Elites and Religion.” In A Matter of Faith: Religion in the 2004 Presidential Election, ed. Campbell, David E. Washington, DC: Brookings.Google Scholar
Herrera, Richard. 1992. “The Understanding of Ideological Labels by Political Elites: A Research Note.” Western Political Quarterly 45:1021–1035.Google Scholar
Hout, Michael, and Fischer, Claude S.. 2002. “Why More Americans Have No Religious Preference: Politics and Generations.” American Sociological Review 67:165–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, James Davison. 1991. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Hunter, James Davison. 1994. Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America's Culture War. New York, NY: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. 2005. “Polarized Politics and the 2004 Congressional and Presidential Elections.” Political Science Quarterly 120:199–218.Google Scholar
Jamieson, Kathleen Hall, and Falk, Erika. 2000. “Continuity and Change in Civility in the House.” In Polarized Politics, ed. Bond, Jon R. and Fleisher, Richard. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 96–108.Google Scholar
Kellstedt, Lyman A., and Green, John C.. 1993. “Knowing God's Many People: Denominational Preference and Political Behavior.” In Rediscovering the Religious Factor in American Politics, eds. Leege, David C., and Kellstedt, Lyman A.. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Kohut, Andrew, Green, John C., Keeter, Scott, and Toth, Robert C.. 2000. The Diminishing Divide: Religion's Changing Role in American Politics. Washington, DC: Brookings.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey C. 2001. The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey C. 2010. “Religion and Party Activists: A ‘Perfect Storm’ of Polarization or a Recipe for Pragmatism” In Religion and Democracy in the United States: Danger or Opportunity?, eds. Wolfe, Alan, and Katznelson, Ira. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 212–254.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey C., and Carsey, Thomas M.. 2002. “Party Polarization and ‘Conflict Extension’ in the American Electorate.” American Journal of Political Science 46:786–802.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey C., Carsey, Thomas M., Green, John C., Herrera, Richard, and Cooperman, Rosalyn. 2010. “Activists and Conflict Extension in American Party Politics.” American Political Science Review 104:324–346.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey C., and Green, John C.. 2006. “Wars and Rumours of War: The Contexts of Cultural Conflict in American Political Behaviour.” British Journal of Political Science 36:61–89.Google Scholar
Lee, Frances E. 2009. Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U.S. Senate. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Levendusky, Matthew. 2009. The Partisan Sort: How Liberals Became Democrats and Conservatives Became Republicans. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Levendusky, Matthew. 2013. How Partisan Media Polarize America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McCarty, Nolan, Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. 2006. Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.Google Scholar
McTague, John Michael, and Layman, Geoffrey C.. 2009. “Religion, Parties, and Voting Behavior: A Political Explanation of Religious Influence.” In The Oxford Handbook on Religion and American Politics, eds. Smidt, Corwin E., Kellstedt, Lyman A., and Guth, James L.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Gary, and Schofield, Norman. 2003. “Activists and Partisan Realignment in the United States.” American Political Science Review 97:245–260.Google Scholar
Miller, Warren E., and Jennings, M. Kent. 1986. Parties in Transition: A Longitudinal Study of Party Elites and Party Supporters. New York, NY: Sage.Google Scholar
Oldfield, Duane M. 1996. The Right and the Righteous: The Christian Right Confronts the Republican Party. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D., and Campbell, David E.. 2010. American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Ranney, Austin. 1972. “Turnout and Representation in Presidential Primary Elections.” American Political Science Review. 66:21–37.Google Scholar
Rohde, David W. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, Kyle L., and Abramowitz, Alan I.. 2004. “Ideological Realignment and Active Partisans in the American Electorate.” American Politics Research 32:285–309.Google Scholar
Schoettmer, Patrick L., Campbell, David E., Layman, Geoffrey C., and Green, John C.. 2011. “Secular America: The Dimensions of Secularism and their Political Consequences.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Seattle.Google Scholar
Shafer, Byron E. 2003. The Two Majorities and the Puzzle of Modern American Politics. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Sherkat, Darren E. 2008. “Beyond Belief: Atheism, Agnosticism, and Theistic Certainty in the United States.” Sociological Spectrum 28:438–459.Google Scholar
Sinclair, Barbara. 2006. Party Wars: Polarization and the Politics of National Policy Making. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Smidt, Corwin E., Kellstedt, Lyman A., and Guth, James L.. 2009. “The Role of Religion in American Politics: Explanatory Theories and Associated Analytical and Measurement Issues.” In The Oxford Handbook on Religion and American Politics, eds. Smidt, Corwin E., Kellstedt, Lyman A., and Guth, James L.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Soule, John W., and Clarke, James W.. 1970. “Amateurs and Professionals: A Study of Delegates to the 1968 Democratic National Convention.” American Political Science Review 64:888–898.Google Scholar
Steensland, Brian, Park, Jerry Z., Regnerus, Mark D., Robinson, Lynn D., Wilcox, W. Bradford, and Woodberry, Robert D.. 2000. “The Measure of American Religion: Toward Improving the State of the Art.” Social Forces 79:291–318.Google Scholar
Stone, Walter J., and Abramowitz, Alan I.. 1983. “Winning May Not Be Everything, but It's More Than We Thought.” American Political Science Review 77:945–956.Google Scholar
Stonecash, Jeffrey M., Brewer, Mark D., and Mariani, Mack D.. 2003. Diverging Parties: Social Change, Realignment, and Party Polarization. Boulder, CO: Westview.Google Scholar
Theriault, Sean M. 2008. Party Polarization in Congress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
White, John Kenneth. 2003. The Values Divide. New York, NY: Chatham House.Google Scholar
Wilcox, Clyde, and Robinson, Carin. 2011. Onward Christian Soldiers? The Religious Right in American Politics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Wildavsky, Aaron. 1965. “The Goldwater Phenomenon: Purists, Politicians, and the Two-Party System.” Review of Politics 27:393–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, James Q. 1962. The Amateur Democrat. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wuthnow, Robert. 1988. The Restructuring of American Religion. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Layman and Weaver supplementary material

Layman and Weaver supplementary material 1

Download Layman and Weaver supplementary material(File)
File 50.8 KB