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How did Republicans manage to hold the White House through much of the past half century even as the Democratic Party held the hearts of most American voters? The authors of this groundbreaking study argue that they did so by doing what Democrats have also excelled at: triggering psychological mechanisms that deepen cultural divisions in the other party's coalition, thereby leading many of its voters either to choose the opposing ticket or to stay home. The Politics of Cultural Differencesis the first book to develop and carefully test a general theory of cultural politics in the United States, one that offers a compelling new perspective on America's changing political order and political conflict in the post-New Deal period (1960-1996). David Leege, Kenneth Wald, Brian Krueger, and Paul Mueller move beyond existing scholarship by formulating a theory of campaign strategies that emphasizes cultural conflict regarding patriotism, race, gender, and religion. Drawing on National Election Studies data, they find that Republican politicians deployed powerful symbols (e.g., \"tax and spend liberals\") to channel targeted voters toward the minority party. And as partisanship approached parity in the 1990s, Democratic leaders proved as adept at deploying their own symbols, such as \"a woman's right to choose,\" to disassemble the Republican coalition. A blend of sophisticated theory and advanced empirical tools, this book lays bare the cultural dimensions of American political life.

How did Republicans manage to hold the White House through much of the past half century even as the Democratic Party held the hearts of most American voters? The authors of this groundbreaking study argue that they did so by doing what Democrats have also excelled at: triggering psychological mechanisms that deepen cultural divisions in the other party’s coalition, thereby leading many of its voters either to choose the opposing ticket or to stay home.

Data drawn from a well-known survey of 2,667 registered U.S. Catholic parishioners (part of the Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life) were used to examine the ways in which black Catholics differ from white Catholics in the patterns -- and predictors -- of religious devotionalism and spirituality. Black Catholics were found to display higher levels of the more private styles of religious devotion and report a greater frequency of spiritual experiences than white Catholics. Especially interesting are the high rates of participation by black Catholics in a variety of traditional, uniquely Catholic styles of devotion. Contrary to expectations, the correlates of religiosity for black and white Catholics tend to be similar. For both groups, social network variables are the strongest net predictors of every measure of religiosity.

When the principal association of political scientists in the United States convenes a Task Force on Religion and American Democracy, the action suggests that religion matters in American public life. This assumption, reinforced by an outpouring of published research over the last thirty years, has not always been widely accepted by political scientists. Indeed, the prevailing attitude toward religion in the discipline has traditionally been characterized by indifference, a tendency to regard religion as a minor political force that arises occasionally and often with baleful consequences for the political system (Wald and Wilcox 2006). In terms of scholarly attentiveness to

As interest in the cultural bases of American political behavior increases, scholars are paying closer attention to the measurement of religiosity and to the mechanisms by which religious values become politically relevant. This research, based on a parish-connected sample of 2,667 Roman Catholics, enjoins the measurement issue by developing a behavioral scale of evangelically oriented Catholicism and shows the distinctive political orientations of those who score high on it. A striking disjuncture between liberal and conservative positions on different sets of issues is discussed in terms of dual reference groups--Catholics and evangelicals--and the clarity of the message offered by Catholic religious leaders.

Objective. As concern about the separation of church and state continues to grow, it may be instructive to examine the relationship between individuals' attitudes toward abortion and their support for political lobbying by religious groups.Methods. We collected data from a representative sample of registered Catholic parishioners who were surveyed in late 1983 and early 1984. We used logistic regression to examine bivariate and multivariate relationships between a measure of abortion attitudes and support for lobbying by religious organizations. Results.Parishioners who take pro-life positions are clearly more likely to support political lobbying by religious organizations than parishioners who hold either moderate or extreme pro-choice positions. Even with a variety of controls applied, parishioners' attitudes toward abortion remain one of the most important predictors of support for lobbying, along with a preference for an evangelical style of devotionalism.Conclusions.Parishioners clearly make some connection between the stances they take on the abortion question and the role that religious groups should play in the public arena. Although it seems clear that an evangelical religious orientation is an important force shaping parishioners' opinions about religious lobbies, it is nevertheless evident that the political effects of abortion attitudes cannot be reduced solely to the strength of one's religious commitment or frequency of participation.

A study uses two assumptions to understand fluctuations in the religious right's involvement in the US political agenda: 1. the \"voters-as-resources\" assumption and 2. the \"multiple-points-of-access\" assumption. While the former calls attention to the behavior of political elites, the latter encourages political scientists to watch the political responses of religious leaders.

Social scientists have formulated several theories or prototheories to account for party identification, political ideology, and issue positions of Americans and, by extension, of American Catholics. These include ethnic assimilation and communalism, social class, regional political culture, political generations, and recently gender. At the same time, some scholars have argued that religious values profoundly affect these political variables. But their measures have never been convincing or their findings strong. This paper formulates a new measure of foundational religious beliefs and, controlling for measures of other theoretically relevant variables, estimates the impact of such beliefs on political variables. Data are drawn from the 2,667 registered Catholic parishioners included in the Notre Dame Study of Catholic Parish Life. The overall model appears modestly powerful, but individual findings are of interest. Interpreting results through theories of partisanship, this paper argues that the traditional measure of partisanship resonates to social structural characteristics of Catholics but that newer theories of partisanship may be better predicted by a measure of foundational religious beliefs. Political ideology and many “cultural politics” issues are responsive to foundational religious beliefs. Positions on more traditional public policy concerns—for example, defense spending, equal opportunity—are better predicted by demographic variables, but even these issues respond to religious values.

Renewed interest in the relationship between religion and politics in the United States and widespread discussion of recent pastoral letters adopted by the American bishops, especially those dealing with disarmament and the economy, have drawn attention to the political values of American Catholics. After a brief historical review of the political experiences of American Catholics and of the roles social theorists accord religion in political life, this article addresses three concerns: (1) in a nation of joiners, does parish participation reinforce civic participation? (2) are there patterns in the connection between religious values and political values? and (3) do parishioners feel that church leaders should offer teachings on personal morality and sociopolitical questions and, if so, should the teaching be accorded special respect? The primary basis for empirical generalizations is a sample of 2667 active, parish-connected non-Hispanic Catholics.