The Church and Congres: Relgious Affiliations and Foreign Policy voting in the U.S. House of Representatives Cover Image

Црква и Конгрес: верска припадност и гласање о спољној политици у америчком представничком дому
The Church and Congres: Relgious Affiliations and Foreign Policy voting in the U.S. House of Representatives

Author(s): Kenneth A. Wink, Todd Collins, James L. Guth, C. Don Livingston
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences
Published by: Центар за проучавање религије и верску толеранцију
Keywords: Legislative Behavior; Religion; Foreign Policy; U.S. House of Representatives; U.S. Congress.

Summary/Abstract: Recent literature in the religion and politics area has focused on the effect of various measures of religious affiliation on the political behavior of the mass public. Here we add to the evolving literature examining the influence of religious orientation on political elite behavior, focusing on the U.S. House of Representatives. Method. We use data on the religious affiliations of U.S. House members and National Journalscores of foreign policy voting to test the influence of religion on foreign policy ideology from 1998-2003. Our findings indicate that even after controlling for traditional political factors, religious identity influenced foreign policy voting in the House. African-American Protestants, Latter-day Saints (Mormons), and Evangelical Protestants present the most distinctive patterns. Conclusions. From this analysis we see further indications that religion influences legislative behavior in a way that, although intertwined with political partisanship, appears distinct from traditional political factors.

  • Issue Year: VII/2013
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 345-371
  • Page Count: 27
  • Language: English