Religion's influence on voting behavior and Catholic conservatism

Voting Behavior

Religion has continued to play an important role in the politics and society in the contemporary world which is characterized by ideas that are interconnected. In fact secularization theories have been found to be wanting in comparison to the influence of religion in politics. The mass influenced that is present in the religious grouping has an overarching effect on the individual's decision which seen the subjugation of personal conscious in the voting behavior. There have been subsequent studies on the voting behavior with various conclusions made on the factors which influence it most. This paper will try to analyze the relation of religion and voting behavior while addressing two research questions. The first one is how religion influences voting behavior and the second one is how catholic's conservatism influences the voting decisions of its members. The religious group members have identity which is common to all of them; they regularly interact with one another; and the different members are expected to think and act in particular ways. A special culture is constituted by the religious group and this might be distinct from other group's cultures in some ways. Myriad of information and opportunities are presented by the congregational life that aids structure the political opinions and civic engagements of the church members. The church member's political life and subsequent voting behavior cannot be understood properly if a detailed explanation of why and how the members are influenced by congregations is not provided. This makes this research questions important for further review.

Theories of Religious Dimensions and voting behavior

Three dimensions of religion: believing, belonging and behaving have been specified by scholars in the recent study of politics and religion in America. The religious community, tradition of denomination affiliation is what is referred to as belonging. The practice of faith is signified in behaving. The religious doctrines and tenets which are upheld by tradition acceptance is the believing aspect of religion. These dimensions are independent and separate aspects of religion even though they are usually associated to each other. Therefore it's impossible to refer to individuals as members of a religious group when they are non-practicing i.e. they don't behave yet they belong or doctrinal orthodoxy which are disparate within the religious communities i.e. exhibiting variations in behaving while claiming to belong. This theoretical framework is applicable in the religion of America, Great Britain and other parts of the world too (Wald, Dennis, & Samuel, 1988, p.538).

The manner in which each religion dimension impacts the political behavior specification is required in politics and religion connection detailing. The political behavior may be influenced b the belonging because the religious community may act as a repository for information or predisposition for politics. Individuals are socialized to various partisan and political preferences simply through the religious group affiliation even if they don't necessarily be part of the faith's practice. There will be reinforcement of preferences which have been socialized is likely through behaving. Political cues or information is likely to be received from the co-religionists or the clergy by the individuals placed in religious environments especially those environments which are organized like the churches by the religious practices. The political behavior may be influenced by the political and social attitude and values which are originating from the religious beliefs.

An important role is played by the political parties in the developing of relationships between the political behavior and the dimensions of religion. There may be establishment of parties so as they represent distinct traditions or religious groups as was evident in the political parties that were catholic based in the European continent. There is a direct linkage between the party and group in these cases and the social groups which the party claims to represent gives most of the support. The parties may appeal to various religious groups even if they don't represent explicitly one religious group using the policy positions or social status of the group which are in harmony with the religious values and beliefs as the base. In other perspective, those who practice religion may be appealed to generally. These groups may also hold strong beliefs and this makes the coalitions of the electorate which consists of several religious persons cutting across various religious groups if the appeal of the parties is done regardless of religious denomination or tradition.

Electoral divisions may also be created basing on religion by the parties which mobilize around secular issues especially class. Because religion rather than class is their principal focus, those with strong religious commitments or affiliations may be driven away by the parties which are class based. The supporters of these parties as a result usually are tend to consist of those who are not affiliated to any religious group, do not exhibit adherence to religious beliefs which are traditional and they rarely engage in religious behavior.

The political behavior based on religion may be influenced by the leaders of the religious group. This is because the party mobilization efforts and can be reinforced and also the connection between beliefs and values of the group and positions of party policy will be reinforced too by the religious leaders. The alliance of the party and the group can be well reinforced by the clergy to the frequent church goers because they are in the best position. The traditionally preferred party by the group members may be criticized by the religious leaders and this is referred to as prophetic conversion. It refers to conversion effort of the clergy towards the members of the religious congregation from one political view set to another or the political preferences become moderated this being of a group of members who are highly committed who would follow the normative behavior of the group in the absence of such clerical clues which are countervailing.

Links between voting behavior and religion

The broad category of religion has played several disparate roles in the field of political science and voting behavior particularly. The role of the church which can also be considered a community organization has the power to endow valuable civic skill to its member and also organize them directly around political activities which they perceive as important to their faith. The role of morals which are religiously rooted and faith in the voting behavior and policy making for both the citizens and public officials is also significant. Political ideology and partisanship is affected by the religious attitudes through the issue preferences which are the intermediary effects. Issues such as abortions and research on stem cell have influenced the faith-based voting for which the sentiments of pro-life have been tapped into (Prendergast, 1999, p.69). There has been focus on voting behavior on individual level which has then be referred to as the religious right which has also been described as frustration expression from as sector of secular America which have been alienated. Religious politics is motivated and stimulated by secularization which has made the religious groups to be motivated against it. The evangelicals voting behavior has also been described as religious threat response. For instance the evangelical Christians voted for the presidential candidates from Republican Party as the level of secularism increased in their community in the 2000 and 1996 elections of United States. In contrast, the behavior of the secularists was not altered as a reaction to the presence of the evangelists.

Group influence and political behavior

The idea of the majority influence seemed to have taken the political students of over fifty years ago whereby the attitudes and values which dominated the social groups of the individual influenced the citizen. It has also been argued that political preferences in a campaign are contagious over personal contacts range. The Elmirons social networks consisted of peers whose views were similar in their voting intentions remained most firm while those individuals were members of two groups having advocacy for opposing parties had voting intentions that were less stable, and more time was needed by them in making of voting decisions. The citizens voting preference was reflective of their religious, racial and union affiliations even after the characteristics were controlled that they were likely to have in common with members of the same group like education, income, rural or urban residence and occupation. Political perceptions which are in harmony with a particular group was more likely to be held by the citizens that expressed identification to that group. It was observed by Newcomb that students who attended Bennington College which was also liberal changed their political ideas notably in the direction of the liberal during the four-year period that they were in the college a change that the general liberalizing impacts of the education of the college or attrition could not account for. The four-year effects for many participants at Belington stayed on for decades. Forces past ordinary persuasion were attributed for these findings.

It has also been argued by Lazarsfeld et al. that political views have originated from traditions and norms of the group or the political preferences of many voters can be regarded to be similar to the cultural tastes originating from ethnic, class, sectional and family traditions (Lazarsfeld, Bernard, and Hazel, 1948, p.36). The choices of the electorate were determined by conformity to the standards of the group that a person associated themselves as proposed by Campbell (2006, p.108). Similarly, it the loyal union or Catholic member is expected to exhibit appropriate behavior as described by the sense of values and norms which are attributed to the generalized group. Whenever the influence occurs, it is attributed to the standards of the group which are real psychologically. When giving the explanation for the occurrence of peer influence, the influence is attributed to the societal influence which is considered less rational rather than to the ordinary persuasion. The experimental psychologist have influenced the voting scholars through their findings when studying the dynamics of a group and have been trying to comprehend the novel influence of the social phenomenon in the preceding decades labeled as conformity, group pressure or majority influence.

For instance the studies of the auto kinetic effect was demonstrated there would be convergence of a group consisting of previously unacquainted individuals on a supposed movement of the light. Even when taking part for a second time in a different occasion, the group's estimate was held more by the individuals. Group norms were the term used to refer to the converging estimates. There was an obvious choice among the student in a group when they were asked to judge the longest line in a pair when the several pairs were presented. What the subjects didn't know was that the real subjects were placed in a confederates group that made errors purposefully. The errors of the confederates persuaded the real subjects in almost one third times and this is a significant percentage considering the fact the errors should have been so obvious. Through the learning of the beliefs of the peers, the individual's belief tended to be altered in their peer's direction and this has been shown in several similar studies.

There still remains a mystery on the reason for the power that is held by the group norms over the beliefs of the individual group member. In the political science the group pressure as the reason for social group influencing has faded probably for this reason. It has been argued that the majority point-of-view persuades the individual because in attempting to comprehend why the views are held by the majority in that particularly manner, the available information is drawn on by the individuals which the majority's view would explained by the arguments that they conjure up and in the process get persuaded by themselves. These works has importance on argumentation and information and its thought best to belong to the traditional persuasion theories. It has also been argued that political minorities comply to such influence so as to ingratiate themselves with the group and such influences are not real expressed through surface compliance or normative influence. There have been further arguments that the persons judgment remain private even when the effect of the group influence persist and the group members could not observe this decisions. Still others have argued against the compliance explanations stating that the citizens are less likely to express their opinions as a result of embarrassment and discomfort. The minorities are likely to become silent all together because their opinion reduces in expression as the discomfort increases.

The catholic family values influence on the voting behavior.

The voting pattern of the individual catholic is influenced by the general views of the catholic group. For most individuals who identify strongly as Catholics, when they lean that the other members of their catholic faith held family values that are progressive tend to move in a direction that is also progressive. Again Catholics who learnt that traditional values were being held by the Evangelicals moved in a direction which was progressive exhibiting polarization from the view of the evangelicals. These characteristics are usually not typical of those who identify weakly as Catholics. If we consider the fact that there is deep respect of the Catholics to the conservative church hierarchy these findings will become more compelling and therefore they are less likely to be open to the peer influence which is socially progressive. The contention of the social emotional influence theory is strongly supported by these views that an important influence mediator is subjective identification. The polarization and group influence of the catholic views is usually in mediated by the emotion of the individual. Another issue considered in the individual's age of which their attitude and values stability comes into play. One common view is the aspect that the Catholics individual members are influenced by the views of the other church members and as such with regards to the traditional family values, they were more socially conservative when other Catholics were perceived to be supportive of this view (Jelen, 1993, p.183).

The self-conscious emotions patterns of the participants supported the idea that an important role is played by these emotions in the group influence. There is strong relationship between the pride held in the values of the person and the conservative values (values which are in harmony with the catholic community) that are held in the by the person shows that pride which is positive emotion originating from others approving the person is wrapped tightly in the traditional family values of the catholic view. This idea suggests that if the participant's perception of the view which garners the approval of others is dislodged then the view of the participant will be dislodged as well. The other aspect of this arguments is that participants who usually support the traditional values feel proud not ashamed when they discover that the traditional values were being opposed by most of the Catholics or the family values were being supported by the evangelical church. The emotions that are self-conscious play a role and the observed influence is not mediated by mediation. The relevance of the social emotional influence to the vote intention of the citizens is also an important factor.

Conclusion

The voting behavior of the individual is strongly indicated by religion that he ascribes to. This is because the manner in which specific issues are perceived by the individual is impacted significantly by religion. These issues include homosexuality, abortion, economics and environment. The response of these issues by the individual is used as guideline in making voting decisions. The conservative stance taken by religious groups like the Catholic Church and the manner in which the different political candidates align themselves either in favor of this conservative approach or more liberal one determines how the candidates will be voted for. Indeed the mass influence of the religious group has been seen to have an overarching effect on the individual decision so that they make voting decisions which are in synchrony to those of the religious group. Therefore the understanding of the significance of religious influence on the voting behavior is reasonable.