This book offers a systematic exploration of the role of religion and religiosity in electoral politics in Catholic, Protestant, and religiously mixed countries across Western Europe and in the United States. The chapters approach the relationship between religion, religiosity, and electoral behaviour from a variety of different angles. They include analyses of secularization trends; comparative studies of the links between vote choice and religiosity; longitudinal single country studies; and a novel discussion of the theoretical underpinnings of the politicization of religion that provides a radically new framework for the analysis of the role of religiosity in election studies. The volume shows that despite the expectations of secularization theory, religiosity remains relevant when casting votes. It also argues that the traditional notion of religious cleavage should be replaced with the more accurate idea of religious voting. Chapters draw on National Election Studies data and comparative datasets such as European Values Studies (EVS), European Social Surveys (ESS), and European Election Studies (EES) to empirically test expectations regarding religious voting. The results show that variations in religious voting are conditional on both the agency of political and ecclesiastical leaders when politicizing religious issues and the legacies of previous societal and political religious conflicts, regardless of whether the original party system had a predominant religious cleavage.

Table of Contents:
1: Kerman Calvo, Paolo Segatti, and José Ramón Montero: Introduction: Does religious voting really exist in secularized democracies? Part I. Setting the scene 2: Karel Dobbelaere: Conflicts on moral issues: Christian Churches and societal secularization in Western Europe 3: Stefano Bartolini: Cleavages and divides in voting and political theory 4: José Ramón Montero: Religious cleavages and religious voting 5: Ferruccio Biolcati and Cristiano Vezzoni: Religious change and church attendance in Western Europe 6: Rosa M. Navarrete, Guillermo Cordero, and Jaime Balaguer: Religiosity and ideology in Western Europe and the United States 7: Alberto Sanz, Stefano Camatarri, Paolo Segatti, and José Ramón Montero: Comparative religious voting: Mechanisms of politicization in post-cleavage elections Part II. Catholic countries 8: Julian Aichholzer, David Johann, and Sylvia Kritzinger: Austria: Developments and determinants of religious voting 9: Ferruccio Biolcati, Paolo Segatti, and Cristiano Vezzoni: Italy: From the religious cleavage to the politics of religious voting 10: Jaak Billiet and Koen Abts: Belgium: Changes in Church involvement, pillar organizations, and voting 11: Michael Marsh: Ireland: Religion and politics 12: Bruno Cautrès: France: The persisting relevance of religious voting 13: Kerman Calvo, Álvaro Martínez, and José Ramón Montero: Spain: Religiosity, ideology, and voting 14: Carlos Jalali: Portugal: Religiosity, party strategies, and voting Part III. Mixed countries 15: Martin Elff and Sigrid Roßteutscher: Germany: Church affiliation, church attendance, and support for Christian Democrats 16: Nan Dirk De Graaf and Giedo Jansen: The Netherlands: The role of cultural conservatism among voters and party elites 17: Romain Lachat: Switzerland: The decline of the religious cleavage Part IV. Protestant countries 18: James Tilley: Britain: The resilience of religion as an electoral divide 19: Bernt Aardal and Henrik Oscarsson: Norway, Sweden, and Denmark: Christian Democratic parties and religious voting Part V. The United States 20: Magda Giurcanu and Kenneth D. Wald: The United States: Religion and political preferences 21: Kenneth D. Wald: The United States and Europe: The importance of regimes of religion and State Part VI. Conclusions 22: Paolo Segatti, Kerman Calvo, and José Ramón Montero: Conclusions: The many facets of religious voting References Index of authors Index of subjects