Religion in the American Congress: the case of the US House of Representatives, 1953–2003

Although there has been a surge of scholarship on the role of religion in American electoral politics, there has been much less analysis of its influence over the behaviour of public officials, such as national legislators. In this study, I review the literature on religion in the Congress, noting t...

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Détails bibliographiques
Auteur principal: Guth, James L. (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Routledge 2014
Dans: Religion, state & society
Année: 2014, Volume: 42, Numéro: 2/3, Pages: 299-313
Sujets non-standardisés:B Culture Wars
B roll-call analysis
B constituency influence
B ethnoreligious affiliation
Accès en ligne: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Résumé:Although there has been a surge of scholarship on the role of religion in American electoral politics, there has been much less analysis of its influence over the behaviour of public officials, such as national legislators. In this study, I review the literature on religion in the Congress, noting the limitations of that research, primarily its failure to measure adequately the religious affiliations, activities and beliefs of members. I then outline an alternative approach that promises a fuller assessment, showing how both ethnoreligious affiliation and theological perspectives have influenced legislative voting since the 1950s. Ethnocultural affiliation was the most powerful influence until the 1990s, but has recently been overlain by deepening ‘culture war’ divisions. The study concludes with a stringent multivariate analysis that controls for important variables typically included in legislative roll call analysis, showing that many religious measures survive those controls.
ISSN:1465-3974
Contient:Enthalten in: Religion, state & society
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2014.947067