From Marginal Revolution, here's a very interesting paper:
http://home.uchicago.edu/~dlc/papers/PoliticalEconomy_of_Beliefs.pdf
The Political Economy of Beliefs: Why Fiscal and Social
Conservatives/Liberals Come Hand-in-Hand (with Jo Lind; submitted, Quarterly
Journal of Economics)
Abstract: Religious intensity as social insurance may explain why fiscal and
social conservatives and fiscal and social liberals come hand-in-hand. We
find evidence that religious groups with greater within-group charitable
giving are more against the welfare state and more socially conservative.
Libertarians (fiscal conservatives—social liberals) are more abundant than
the religious left (fiscal liberals—social conservatives). The alliance
reverses for members of a state church: social conservatives become fiscal
liberals. Increases in church-state separation precede increases in the
relationship between fiscal and social conservatism. The framework provides
a novel explanation for religious history: as credit markets develop, elites
gain access to alternative social insurance and legislate increasing
church-state separation to create a constituency for lower taxes. This holds
if religious voters exceed non-religious voters, otherwise, elites prefer
less church-state separation in order to curb the secular left. This
generates multiple equilibria where some countries sustain high church-state
separation, high religiosity, and low welfare state, and vice versa. We use
this framework to explain the changing nature of religious movements, from
Social Gospel to the religious right, and why church-state separation arose
in the US but not in many European countries.
_________________________________________________________________
On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to
get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement
_______________________________________________
To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see
http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw
Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private.
Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can
read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the
messages to others.
