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This article explores the relationship between religiosity and voting decisions in Spain and Portugal. We study whether religion (measured as church attendance and opinions about moral issues) influences voting for the two main political parties. Results show a different relationship between religion and voting in both countries: only in Spain reli...
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Citations
... This is explained by the abovementioned influence the Catholic Church has in managing publiclyfunded private schools. In Spain, Catholics show a higher inclination to vote for parties identified with the right, in a stronger relationship than in other countries (Montero, Calvo & Martínez, 2008). That provides another possible explanation, since people that self-identify on the ideological right are usually less satisfied with public services (Rodríguez, Pruneda & Cueto, 2014) and more identified with the liberal discourse that attributes greater efficiency to private management (Rodríguez, 2014). ...
The process of school choice depends on a wide range of circumstances including those related to the accessibility to schools and parental preferences. This paper has three goals: (1) Identify whether the preferences for the different kinds of schools (public, publicly-funded private, or private) vary according to the family’s traits; (2) estimate the degree of concurrence between the kind of school their children attend and the kind of school the parents prefer a posteriori; and (3) identify which social groups demonstrate lower levels of concurrence. We used a sub-sample of people with children registered in compulsory grades or post-compulsory grades up to university from representative national survey (2012). Results show that post hoc school preferences differ by educational level, economic status, religious orientation, and size of town. Likewise, we find divergences between the school parents prefer and the school their children attend, something that occurs more frequently among those with less economic resources.
Even though no relevant evidence exists about the revival of religion in the European public sphere, certain moral policies, such as those dealing with the regulation of abortion, have unleashed the protest of Christian-inspired lay groups, advocacy coalitions and churches. Social mobilization against this type of policies is not surprising in democracy, but one of the new traits of the antiabortion protest over the last decades is that it has been led by social groups and experts, not connected with the church, who emphasize scientific, rather than moral or religious arguments. On their part, churches in different countries have played different roles: unlike other religious institutions, the Spanish Catholic church (SCC) has clearly played the role of an adversarial interest group and has been de facto an important ally of Christian social groups. The adversarial strategy of the organized Christian world is basically due to the new Socialist agenda (2004-11), which has stressed morally-sensitive issues such as the liberalization of abortion, same-sex marriage and the subject of Education for Citizenry. The analysis of Christian social group shows however that important differences regarding their framings and repertoires are to be found. Likewise, relevant overlapping membership between these groups and the SCC can be detected, even though both actors have reiterated that no formal links exist between them. Finally, that religion in secularized societies may become a public issue should there be religiously-inspired actors who successfully mobilize Conservative sectors in the society which express a high intensity of preferences in the face of morally-laden policies, is another finding to be borne in mind.
Social sciences have often claimed the end of religiosity as an explanatory factor of electoral behaviour in Europe. Nevertheless, left and right parties still insert religious and moral issues in the agenda in order to distance themselves from their opponents. This paper shows a comparative study of 34 European democracies examining the extent to which religious voting has diminished since the eighties. Results point to a sharp decline in the levels of religious vote until the nineties, with a revitalization since then in some of the countries of the sample. The analysis also highlights the important role played by the political elite on the activation of religious vote.
The limits of ideological loyalty in citizens' evaluation of local administrative performance intentions towards the heads of local government. Given that the scientific literature is also accumulating evidence on the relationship between ideology and political preferences, the purpose of this article is to determine what role ideology plays in the impact of perceived quality on political preferences; specifically whether ideology annuls or moderates such an impact and to what degree. As concepts of "perceived quality" and "behavioral intention" are causally linked constructs, structural equation methodology (SEM) was required to perform the analysis. The analysis verifies the spurious and moderation hypotheses, but the data rejects both and points to an unexpected explanatory mechanism. A survey conducted in nine locations in Valencia (Spain) has revealed the surprising role that ideology is playing in shaping the political will of citizens through the evaluation of services.
Social capital has the capacity to mobilize the resources embedded in the social networks of the members of a community. The presence of this capital is related to a range of benefits to individuals and societies, while a lack of such capital may imply hampered develop¬ment. The aim of this paper is to analyze and characterize the social capital of the province of Teruel (Spain), a rural territory characterized by a fragmented economy. The research methodology includes measuring the levels of social trust and estimating associational density through secondary sources analysis. The results provide information on the strength of intra-community networks and, simultaneously, the precariousness of extra-community networks. These aspects must be considered when designing policies aimed at generating social capital, a cru-cial element for aiding the province in breaking the vicious cycle in which it is embroiled.
This study examines the interplay between the political and religious factors in the activity of Spanish members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in their work within the European Parliament (EP). First, we explore the impact of Spanish MEPs’ religious preferences and ideological beliefs regarding religious affairs on their parliamentary activity. Second, we analyse the parliamentary activity of Spanish MEPs (parliamentary questions and motions for resolution) related to religious affairs. We argue that the rapid and profound process of secularisation in the Spanish population is also observable in the stances of MEPs towards religious affairs. Most of them perceive religious issues as belonging to only the private sphere, and do not consider that their personal religious affiliation and preferences should play any role in their political activity in the EP. The analysis also shows that religion is mainly addressed in an indirect way in the EP and is not a central concern on the agenda. We conclude that despite the fact that religion plays a minor role, the analysis of the activity of Spanish MEPs permits us to detect an affinity between ideological and religious positions. Therefore we argue that the religious cleavage that has characterised the history of Spain, despite having lost its historical strength, is still detectable in the activity of MEPs: right-wing parties are defenders of the values and interests of the Catholic Church within the EP, while left-wing parties have a more secularist agenda and use the EP as an arena to denounce the privileges and attitudes of the Catholic Church in Spain.
Much has been said about the institutional determinants of transitional justice (TJ), yet scholars still know little about the determinants of citizens’ attitudes toward restorative policies aimed at addressing human rights violations of the past. This article draws on an original survey of a representative sample of Spanish citizens conducted in 2008. One year earlier, the Spanish socialist government had approved the so-called Law of Historical Memory, aimed at providing restitution for victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Francoist dictatorship (1939-1975). We analyze individual-level attitudes toward a set of TJ policies (i.e., truth commissions, trials, and symbolic reparations) in a comprehensive overview of the field. We study the effects of different sets of variables: individual sociodemographic and ideological factors, family and socialization variables, and context-related factors. Individual ideology, family victimization during the dictatorship, and regional context appear highly relevant in explaining individual attitudes toward TJ policies.
Left-wing parties in contemporary democracies have to face huge organizational and competitive dilemmas. This article aims at examining party change and adaptation of left-wing parties by focusing on Southern European countries. By re-examining three key areas of party change – the linkage between parties and civil society, the ideological and programmatic dimension and party organization – this research contributes to understand the trajectory and the characteristics of contemporary left-wing parties. Although there is an increasing convergence with regard to the three dimensions, left-wing parties in new democracies are able to respond to more flexibly to external challenges compared to the main Italian left-wing party. This process shows that left-wing parties are adopting a model based on personalized leadership, moderate stances and flexible roots with regard to civil society. The different outcome of these responses is a central element for explaining the institutional and governmental performances. Yet this study argues that the success is inevitably fragile because of the erosion of stable partisan links between left-wing parties and the electorate.
