State and religion over time

Abstract

State and religion, two of the oldest institutions known to mankind, have historically had a close relationship with each other, but the disestablishment of state religions has been one of the most drastic institutional transformations that has taken place in the modern era. We offer a systematic analysis of the development of secular states based on a political economy approach that is centered on the notion of legitimacy. Viewing religion as a legitimizing force for political leaders, we consider the factors affecting the cost and benefits of alternative sources of legitimacy, such as the differential abilities of religious and secular sources to legitimize political rulers and historical inertia that shaped the cost of monitoring legitimizing agents. To examine this argument empirically, we built a cross-national time-series dataset for the relationship between state and religion since the year 1000. We first use the data to examine the evolution of secularism over time and its variation across religious traditions. We then use regression analysis and an instrumental variables approach to identify the influences on the adoption of secular state, such as concentration in the religion market, religious differences between rulers and the general population, historical inertia of a state, and the prevailing political regime. We address endogeneity concerns regarding the relationship between religious concentration and state secularity by exploiting variation among territories in their geographic distance to religious "capitals" of the world as an instrument.

The making of state religion: Political economy and historical evidence

“…In a similar vein, Barro and McCleary (2005) and Cosgel and Miceli (2009) have argued that the likelihood of state religion depends positively on the adherence rate to the main religion. Cosgel et al (2015) find that, in a panel data analysis with fixed effects, covering the period from 1000 to 2000 AD, this effect is significant in independent territories regardless of whether OLS or an instrumental variable approach is used. However, in a cross-section analysis for the year 2000, the effect turns insignificant if the extent of printing in 1500 AD is included in a smaller sample.…”

“…42. Cosgel et al (2015) use the extent of printing as a (negative) proxy for the ruler's need for legitimacy. They find that the extent of printing has a significantly negative effect on the likelihood of state religion in the year 2000.…”

Pacem in Terris: Are Papal Visits Good News for Human Rights?

“…The Catholic Church has been a major player in the market for political legitimacy and was often rewarded generously, for example by being declared the official state religion (Coşgel et al 2018). In past centuries, the Church's side of the bargain was to declare the rule of political leaders divine.…”

The state, religion, and freedom: a review essay of Persecution & toleration

“…In addition, they did not have the means to prevent the suppression or even persecution of religious heretics and minorities, 2 Researchers have recently studied legitimizing relationship between political and religious authorities to study institutions, such as state religion, and puzzling phenomena, such as bans on technology. See, for example, Coşgel and Miceli (2009), and Coşgel et al (2012Coşgel et al ( , 2018.…”

“…Early pioneering contributions to this literature focused primarily on the economic analysis of religious beliefs and behavior (Iannaccone 1998). A growing literature has recently shifted attention to the legitimizing relationship between religion and the state (Coşgel and Miceli, 2009;Coşgel, Miceli, and Rubin 2012;Rubin 2017) and the evolution of this relationship over time (Coşgel, Histen, Miceli, and Yildirim 2018). Johnson and Koyama expand this literature in new directions by exploring the causes and consequences of the state's political association with religion, not just for the presence of an official religion, but for the treatment of heretics and minorities.…”