The Role of Protestantism in Democratic Consolidation Among Transitional States
Abstract
Previous studies have examined the causal link between Protestantism and democratization, primarily in shaping a nation-state's cultural ethos and its tendency to affect the outcome of democratic politics. Historically, Protestantism has also been linked to generating a political culture that promotes individualism, tolerance, the pluralism of ideas, and civic associationalism. Recent empirical evidence also shows how Protestant countries are more likely to be democratic compared to largely Islamic and Catholic states. Drawing from established cultural theories, the author empirically tests the argument whether or not transitional states with larger Protestant populations are more likely to strengthen their democracies. Findings indicate that transitional states that have higher Protestant populations are more likely to have higher levels of voice and accountability, political stability, citizenship empowerment, and civil society pluralism. The author contends that transitional states with higher Protestant populations are more likely to consolidate their democracies.
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1.
1. The influence of religious tradition on the civil service is surely controversial. In fact, enduring religious traditions may be dismantled by a prevailing socialist ideology that many countries employed in their history. Socialism's emphasis on equality and the principle of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” may increase merit-based achievement norms that can induce governmental efficiency or it may decrease effective social goods provision because of higher levels of state interventionism (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer, & Vishny, 1999).
2.
2. Likewise, some may argue that this might be overstretching the theory as conceptualized by Gill (1994), and what is observable is how the increasing levels of liberalization within Catholic Church is an inadvertent occurrence (Bruce, 2004). Because of its realization that it is becoming a minority religion, it is possible that Catholic episcopates accepted its diminishing role as a dominant force in the region and began to promote an agenda of ecumenism and the tolerance of other faiths.
3.
3. For the role of Protestantism on spurring democratic gains in Africa, see Gifford (1994, 1995, 1998), Haynes (1996), and Hansen and Twaddle (1995). For the role of Protestantism in expanding the democratic space in Latin America, refer to Cleary and Stewart-Gambino (1997), Stoll (1990), and Martin (1990). For the role of Protestant churches in triggering dissident and democracy movements in Eastern Europe and Russia, see Ramet (1993).
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4. But the beneficial effects of Protestantism on democracy have faced increased scrutiny. For instance, Gill (2004) in his later work asserts that Protestantism in Latin America is not an agent of democratization. He finds that various denominational affiliations of Christianity in Latin America do not have any bearing in promoting democratic attitudes. Rather, what matters more in explaining variation in political attitudes (specifically, leftist or rightist orientation) is largely a result of the frequency of church attendance, which increases social capital. In fact some scholars like Ireland (1993) and Deirios (1991) claim that Protestantism in Latin America adhere to a certain degree of fatalism or political detachment, a common trait they share with their Catholic brethren who looked at the state as a paternalistic figure the faithful cannot challenge. Hence, Protestantism is unlikely to be a vehicle for democratic change.
5.
5. Some may even argue that largely Protestant states spurred antidemocratic sentiments in the polity. This is evident in Germany (the birthplace of Protestantism), where Fascism thrived in the late 1930s. We also saw this happen in South Africa where the largely White Protestant nation imposed the policy of apartheid, which abrogated the political and civil rights of Blacks during the Afrikaner-dominated governments that ruled from 1948 to 1994.
6.
6. Hagopian (2005) uses the same scores to measure the extent to which Latin American states have consolidated their democracies.
7.
7. For more details on the methodological construction of this measure refer to Richards, Gelleny, and Sacko (2001).
8.
8. The exclusion of Anglicans in this study poses serious issues because many African states have significant Anglican populations that share some commonality with mainline Protestant groups, as regards to moral conservatism and norm adherence. However, I follow the operational rule advanced by Treisman (2000), who argues that Anglicanism's emphasis on vertical leadership and the centralized role of laity in interpreting doctrine places it more in common doctrinally with the Catholic faith globally.
9.
9. Krieckhaus (2006) finds that the disparate colonial experience of developing states has impacted their varying growth rates (negatively and positively) many years after the decolonization period. Hence it is likely that democratic performance, in terms of political accountability and stability, may be affected by long-standing colonial legacies.
10.
10. Gerring and Thacker (2004) also used the La Porta et al. (1999) measure of the 25-year average of gross domestic product (GDP) 1970-1995 as a way to rectify the endogeneity problem.
11.
11. Federalism is deemed as having an effect on democracy by facilitating political pluralism and administrative efficiency (Elazar, 1987). But empirical work shows that federalism has relatively no impact in improving the quality of democracy (Lane & Ersson, 2005), and in fact has a negative impact in promoting macro-economic stability and political reform (Wibbels, 2000). I employ Wibbel's (2000, p. 699, Appendix B) data where fully federal systems are coded as 2, partly federal systems are coded as 1, and nonfederal systems are coded as 0 in 1995.
12.
12. Derived from their measure capturing the prevailing institutional arrangement in each state over the previous two decades coded as 1 = superpresidentialism, 2 = semipresidentialism, and 3 = strong parliamentarism.
13.
13. Scholars claim that democratic transitions among Catholic countries are a result of the post—Vatican II reforms (1962-1965), where for the first time in the history of the church, Pope John XXIII endorsed the transglobal promotion of human rights, religious liberty, and the toleration of faiths in his encyclical titled Digitanis Humanae (Philpott, 2004). Clearly, it is possible that transitional states experienced marked changes in democratic politics as an effect of the post—Vatican reforms and the concomitant growth of Protestantism that the change in doctrine allowed.
14.
14. These alternative models exclude 10 states that are considered “not free” by Freedom House in 2006. They include Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cambodia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe.
15.
15. Alternative models are not shown because of space reasons. The alternative models are available upon request from the author.
16.
16. We see this happen with Protestant human rights nongovernmental organization activity in India (Woodberry & Shah, 2004), democratic groups in Taiwan with the aimed goal of curbing corruption and increasing governmental efficiency (Rubinstein, 2006), Protestant mobilization groups calling for more grassroots popular democracy in South Korea (Hong, in press; Im, 2006; Kang, 1997), prodemocracy movements with the goal of holding executive and legislative politicians under the rule of law in the Philippines (Lim, 1989, in press), and populist progressive Protestant movements advocating for income and social equality in Brazil, Kenya, and Zambia (Freston, 2001).
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Article first published online: January 30, 2009
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