Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/214538 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
CREMA Working Paper No. 2013-14
Publisher: 
Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA), Zürich
Abstract: 
In this paper, we analyze the effects of religious identity – defined both as personal identification with a religious tradition and institutional ideas on the provision of public goods – on attitudes toward central government. We explore whether citizens belonging to collectivist rather than individualist religious denominations are more likely to evaluate their central government positively. Moreover, we explore whether adherence to collectivist norms of economic and political organization leads to a positive evaluation of central government. Surveys were conducted in Russia and Israel as these countries provide a mosaic of three major world religions – Judaism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Sunni Islam. The information gathered also allows us to study whether attitudes towards religious institutions such as the Russian Orthodox Church, the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, and the Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in Israel are able to predict positive attitudes toward centralized forms of governance. We find strong support for the proposition that collectivist norms and an institutional religious identity enhance positive attitudes towards central government.
Subjects: 
Religious identity
public goods
collectivism
individualism
local government
centralization
Russia
Israel
JEL: 
P16
P17
P21
P35
P51
P52
Z12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
452.46 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.