Bringing the Faithful Back In: The Influence of Catholics and White Evangelicals on Polarization in State Abortion Politics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2006.27.0.129-148Abstract
I use two maximum likelihood models to assess whether the density of Roman Catholics and white evangelicals in state legislative districts significantly increases the likelihood that state House representatives hold the “pro-life” position on abortion. As hypothesized, the relative district density of both Catholic parishes and white evangelical adherents is found to be a significant “pro-life” influence. These are provocative findings. They suggest that not only is officeholder polarization the product of machinations by political elites (Fiorina et al. 2006), but that interested publics representing essentially non-political institutions and constituent blocs also contribute to such polarization, at least in regard to state abortion politics.References
Aldrich, John H. 1995. Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226012773.001.0001
Ansolabehere, Stephen, James M. Snyder, Jr., and Charles Stewart III. 2001. Candidate Positioning in U.S. House Elections. American Journal of Political Science 45:136-159. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2669364
Arceneaux, Kevin. 2002. Direct Democracy and the Link Between Public Opinion and State Abortion Policy. State Politics and Policy Quarterly 4: 372-387. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/153244000200200403
Arnold, R. Douglas. 1990. The Logic of Congressional Action. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Burns, Gene. 1992. Commitments and Non-Commitments: The Social Radicalism of U.S. Catholic Bishops. Theory and Society 21:703-733. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00993495
Burns, Nancy, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Sidney Verba. 2001. The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Byrnes, Timothy. 1991. Catholic Bishops in American Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Byrnes, Timothy. 1993. The Politics of the American Catholic Hierarchy. Political Science Quarterly 108:497-515. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2151701
Carmines, Edward G., James A. Stimson. 1980. The Two Faces of Issue Voting. The American Political Science Review 74:78-91. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1955648
Castelli, Jim. 1987. A Tale of Two Cultures. Notre Dame Magazine 15:33-34.
Charles, Rodger. 1999. An Introduction to Catholic Social Teaching. San Francisco: Ignatius Press.
Cook, Elizabeth Adell, Ted G. Jelen, and Clyde Wilcox. 1993. State Political Cultures and Public Opinion about Abortion. Political Research Quarterly 46:771-781. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/106591299304600405 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/448930
Dodd, Lawrence C. 1993. Congress and the Politics of Renewal: Redressing the Crisis of Legitimation. In Congress Reconsidered, 5th ed., eds. Lawrence C. Dodd and Bruce I. Oppenheimer. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
Erikson, Robert S., Gerald C. Wright, and John P. McIver. 1993. Statehouse Democracy: Public Opinion and Public Policy in the American States. Cambridge, UK: Cam-bridge University Press.
Fairbanks, David. 1977. Religious Forces and .Morality. Policies in the American States. Western Political Quarterly 30:411-417. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/447941
Fenno, Richard, F. 1978. Home Sstyle: House Members in Their Districts. New York: Harper Collins.
Fischer, Claude S. 1995. The Subcultural Theory of Urbanism: A Twentieth-Year Assessment. The American Journal of Sociology 101:543-577. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/230753
Fiorina, Morris P., with Samuel J. Abrams and Jeremy C. Pope. 2006. Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America, 2nd ed. New York: Pearson Longman.
Fowler, Paul B. 1987. Abortion: Toward an Evangelical Consensus. Portland, OR: Multnomah Press.
Gay, David, and John Lynxwiler. 1999. The Impact of Religiosity on Race Variations in Abortion Attitudes. Sociological Spectrum 19:359-378. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/027321799280190
Glaser, James M. 1996. Race, Campaign Politics, and the Realignment in the South. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Green, John C. 2000. The Christian Right at the Millennium. American Jewish Committee Publications, New York City, http://www.ajc.org/InTheMedia/Publications.asp?did=139
Green John C., and James L. Guth. 1991. Religion, Representatives, and Roll Calls. Legislative Studies Quarterly 16:571-584. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/440018
Green, John C., Mark J. Rozell, and Clyde Wilcox, eds. 2003. The Christian Right in American Politics: Marching to the Millennium. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Guth, James L., and John C. Green. 1991. An Ideology of Rights: Support for Civil Liberties among Political Activists. Political Behavior 13:321-344. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00992867
Guth, James L., John C. Green, Corwin E. Smidt, Lyman A. Kellstedt, and Margaret M. Poloma. 1997. The Bully Pulpit: The Politics of Protestant Clergy. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Hall, Elaine J., and Myra Marx Ferree. 1986. Race Differences in Abortion Attitudes. Public Opinion Quarterly 50:193-207. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/268974
Hansen, Susan B. 1993. Differences in Public Policies toward Abortion: Electoral and Policy Context. In Understanding the New Politics of Abortion, ed. Malcolm L. Goggin. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Hunter, James Davison. 1991. Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America. New York: Basic Books.
Jackson, John E., and John W. Kingdon. 1992. Ideology, Interest Group Scores, and Legislative Votes. American Journal of Political Science 36:805-823. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2111592
Jelen, Ted G. 2003. Catholic Priests and the Political Order: The Political Behavior of Catholic Pastors. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42:591-604. http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1468-5906.2003.00205.x
Jelen, Ted G. 2004. Roman Catholic Priests. In Pulpit and Politics: Clergy in American Politics at the Advent of the Millennium, ed. Corwin E. Smidt. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Jones, Dale E., Sherri Doty, Clifford Grammich, James E. Horsch, Richard Houseal, Mac Lynn, John P. Marcum, Kenneth M. Sanchagrin, and Richard H. Taylor. 2002. Religious Congregations and Membership in the United States 2000: An Enumeration by Region, State and County Based on Data Reported for 149 Religious Bodies. Nashville, TN: Glenmary Research Center.
Kelley, Jonathan, M.D.R. Evans, and Bruce Headey. 1993. Moral Reasoning and Political Conflict: The Abortion Controversy. The British Journal of Sociology 44:589-612. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/591412
Kellstedt, Lyman, and John C. Green. 1993. Knowing God.s Many People. In Redis-covering the Religious Factor in American Politics, eds. David Leege and Lyman Kellstedt. Armonk, NY: Sharpe.
Leege, David C., and Michael R. Welch. 1989. Religious Roots and Political Orientations: Variations Among American Catholic Parishioners. Journal of Politics 51:137-162. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2131613
Leege, David C., Kenneth D. Wald, Brian S. Krueger, and Paul D. Mueller. 2002. The Politics of Cultural Differences: Social Change in the Post-New Deal Period. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Mayhew, David R. 1974. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
McCarthy, John D., and Mayer N. Zald. 1977. Resource Mobilization and Social Movements: A Partial Theory. American Journal of Sociology 82:1212-1241. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/226464
McMullen, Mike. 1994. Religious Polities as Institutions. Social Forces 73:709-728. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2579827 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sf/73.2.709
Medoff, Marshall H. 2002. The Determinants and Impact of State Abortion Restrictions. American Journal of Economics and Sociology 61:481-493. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1536-7150.00169
Meier, Kenneth, and Deborah McFarlane. 1993. The Politics of Funding Abortion: State Responses to the Political Environment. American Politics Quarterly 21:81-101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1532673X9302100106
Morris, Aldon. 1996. The Black Church in the Civil Rights Movement: The SCLC as a Decentralized, Radical Arm of the Black Church. In Disruptive Religion: The Force of Faith in Social Movement Activism, ed. Christian Smith. New York: Routledge.
National Abortion Rights Action League. 2001. Who Decides? A State-by-State Review of Abortion Rights. Washington, DC: National Abortion Rights Action League.
Norrander, Barbara, and Clyde Wilcox. 1999. Public Opinion and Policymaking in the States: The Case of Post-Roe Abortion Policy. Policy Studies Journal 27:707-722. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1541-0072.1999.tb01998.x
O.Connor, Karen. 1996. No Neutral Ground? Abortion Politics in an Age of Absolutes. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
O.Connor, Robert, and Michael Berkman. 1995. Religious Determinants of State Abortion Policy. Social Science Quarterly 76:447-459.
Oldmixon, Elizabeth Anne. 2005. Uncompromising Positions: God, Sex, and the U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Olson, Laura R. 2000. Filled with Spirit and Power: Protestant Clergy in Politics. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Olson, Laura R., Sue E. S. Crawford, and Melissa M. Deckman. 2005. Women with a Mission: Religion, Gender, and the Politics of Women Clergy. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press.
Penning, James M. 1998. The Political Behavior of American Catholics: An Assessment of the Impact of Group Integration vs. Group Identification. The Western Political Quarterly 41:289-308. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/448539
Pew Hispanic Center and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. October 2002. National Survey of Latinos: The Latino Electorate. Washington, DC. www.pewhispanic.org.
Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. August 2005. Abortion and Rights of Terror Suspects Top Court Issues. Washington, DC. http://pewforum.org.
Rabinowitz, George and Stuart Elaine MacDonald. 1989. A Directional Theory of Issue Voting. American Political Science Review 83:93-121. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1956436
Regnerus, Mark D., David Sikkink, and Christian Smith. 1999. Voting with the Christian Right: Contextual and Individual Patterns of Electoral Influence. Social Forces 77: 1375-1401. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3005880 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/sf/77.4.1375
Roche, Douglas. 1970. The Challenge to Authority in the Catholic Church. In American Mosaic: Social Patterns of Religion in the United States, eds. Phillip E. Hammond and Benton Johnson. New York: Random House.
Rohde, David W. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226724058.001.0001
Rozell, Mark J., and Clyde Wilcox, eds. 1995. God at the Grass Roots: The Christian Right in the 1994 Elections. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Sharp, Elaine B., ed. 1999. Culture Wars and Local Politics. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Smidt, Corwin, ed. 2004. Pulpit and Politics: Clergy in American Politics at the Advent of the Millennium. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.
Tatalovich, Raymond, and David Schier. 1993. The Persistence of Ideological Cleavage in Voting on Abortion Legislation in the House of Representatives, 1973-1988. American Politics Quarterly 21:125-139. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1532673X9302100108
Wald, Kenneth D. 2003. Religion and Politics in the United States, 4th ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Wald, Kenneth D., Dennis E. Owen, and Samuel S. Hill, Jr. 1988. Churches as Political Communities. American Political Science Review 82:531-548. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1957399
Wetstein, Matthew E., and Robert B. Albritton. 1995. Effects of Public Opinion on Abortion Policies and Use in the American States. Publius: The Journal of Federalism 25:91-105. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3330814
Zeitlin, Irving M. 2003. The Religious Experience: Classical Philosophical and Social Theories. New York: Prentice Hall.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with American Review of Politics agree to the following terms:
The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
Attribution: other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
Non-Commercial: the materials may not be used for commercial purposes;
Share Alike: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.
with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
The Author represents and warrants that:
the Work is the Author’s original work;
the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
the Work has not previously been published;
the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
