2007/08/01 by Brian J. Grim, Roger Finke · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Religion and Society Interactions #Religion, Society, and Development #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Persecution #Religious persecution #Context (archaeology) #Government (linguistics) #Religious organization #Sociology #Religious discrimination #Political science #Political economy #Development economics #Social psychology #Law #Politics #Economics #Psychology #History
paper · doi:10.1177/000312240707200407
openalex publication_date 2007/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Despite the high visibility of religiously charged international social conflicts, the unique role of religion often is overlooked in social science research and theory. Some studies ignore religion, others conflate religion with other identities. Virtually all lack adequate data. We respond to these deficiencies by testing a theory-driven model of a particular form of social conflict, religious persecution. We investigate the proposition that religious regulation leads to religious persecution. Using measures coded from the 2003 International Religious Freedom Reports, we consider how both social regulation and government regulation of religion in 143 countries affect the level of religious persecution. We also consider and test competing hypotheses, particularly Huntington's clash-of-civilizations thesis. We find strong support for the religious economies arguments and only limited support for the clash-of-civilizations thesis and other competing arguments.