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Reconceptualizing Church and State: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Separation of Religion and State on Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2011

Robert Brathwaite  and
Andrew Bramsen
Robert Brathwaite*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
Andrew Bramsen*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Robert Brathwaite or Andrew Bramsen, University of Notre Dame, 217 O'Shaughnessy Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556. E-mail: rbrathwa@nd.edu; abramsen@nd.edu
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Robert Brathwaite or Andrew Bramsen, University of Notre Dame, 217 O'Shaughnessy Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556. E-mail: rbrathwa@nd.edu; abramsen@nd.edu
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Abstract

This article argues that the relationship between democracy and the separation of religion and state needs to be reexamined. We argue that previous studies have misconceptualized the impact that a lack of church-state separation can have on democracy, or have taken a narrow focus by concentrating on specific cases. We use principal component analysis and a large-n data set covering 125 countries to show that the separation of religion and state should be conceptualized multi-dimensionally and that it should be considered a component of democracy. Our findings show that as separation of religion and state increases, the level of democracy also increases.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , August 2011 , pp. 229 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2011

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