Mediating Religion and Government

the long version

"The empirical study of religion and politics emerged as a strongly behavioral sub-discipline within political science within the late 20th Century. Particularly in the American context, scholars have placed tremendous emphasis on religion's influence on political attitudes and behaviors. As a result, we have a much better understanding of the potency of religion in shaping voting patterns, party affiliation, and views of public policy, among other behavioral aspects of American politics. In the context of a democracy, however, political institutions mediate the effect of religion on political attitudes and the policy process. In a Madisonian sense, institutions are at the fulcrum of mass politics and policy outputs. This volume investigates the influence of religion on and within political institutions. Each chapter provides a synthesis of the literature with respect to a particular institution and makes an original research contribution to the literature. By addressing the historical, contemporary, constitutional, and policy-based elements of religious interactions within politics, the volume creates a wide-ranging assessment of the sometimes contentious relationship between these two pillars of American culture. "-- "The central argument of this volume is that the influence of religion on politics and policy in the United States is mediated by and through political institutions such as Congress, the presidency, the courts, and bureaucracy. The great 20th century social movements, such as Prohibition and the Civil Rights Movement for African Americans, were informed by religious values and interests brought into the public square. But those values and interests are channeled and re-shaped by the process of policy-making itself. Political institutions are not merely ciphers for religious impulses. They provide the rules and context under which religious and secular interests seek policy influence. In order to fully understand this dynamic, we must look to the political institutions that make, implement, and interpret policy. The volume elaborates on this process by highlighting individual institutions with each chapter"--