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Church Voting Recommendations, Voter Preferences, and Political Decisions

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Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion

Published online on

Abstract

["Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Volume 59, Issue 3, Page 455-475, September 2020. ", "\nAbstract\nIn Switzerland, two key church institutions—the Conference of Swiss Bishops and the Federation of Protestant Churches—make public recommendations on how to vote for certain referenda. We leverage this situation to directly measure religious organizations’ power to reflect and shape human decision making. That is, using a direct measure of voters’ commitment to their religious institution, we analyze whether they are more likely to vote in line with this organization's voting recommendation. We find that these recommendations do indeed wield influence, implying that even in a secularized world, religion plays a crucial role in voting decisions. Our results hold for both aggregate and individual‐level voting decisions.\n"]