religion and politics - religion and public opinion, clements

Question 1

study

Answer 1

• provides a detailed study of the social and political attitudes of religious groups in Britain - It covers a period when religion has declined in significance as a social force in Britain, with falling levels of identity, belief, attendance and of the traditional rites of passage. - those identifying Britain as a ‘Christian nation’ have dropped significantly, and also the idea that being Christian is a significant part of being British.

Question 2

perspective and analysis

Answer 2

• Provides an important ‘bottom-up’ perspective on the historical and contemporary linkages between religion and politics in Britain
• includes the 3 main areas commonly used to analyse religion: ‘belonging, behaving, and believing’
  The study seeks to probe public confidence in religious institutions, and at the appropriateness of religious leaders engaging in politics, being involved in debate and seeking to influence individuals or government.

Question 3

stats re. personal engagement with religion

Answer 3

• Personal engagement with religion in all surveys had diminished: now 25-50% of British people make sense of life without religion - leaves a large number that do - would be too hasty a conclusion to make that this automatically means a decline in the acceptance of religious authority - Breaking down the groups according to gender, age, educational attainment, social grade, political party supported, and left-right ideology the same decline is observed, but there are significant differences in the extent, so confidence in the church’s authority
  • has declined more among women than men;

Question 4

stats - age and socio-economic background

Answer 4

• • regarding age it is the oldest group (65-74) that show the largest decline, and the smallest change has been in the 18-24 and 25-34 year old group – with the age related ‘confidence gap’ decreasing overall – in fact the confidence of the younger groups has changed very little, particularly since 1990
• • socio-economic background (a combination of educational attainment and social grade) shows similar trends, but the highest drop is among the DE (unskilled and out of work)

Question 5

parties and political ideologies

Answer 5

• • with party political support small declines in those supporting larger parties, and larger declines in those supporting smaller ones
• • regarding political ideology, the right wing sees a large decline (probably also those associated with established social institutions), with a small decline only in those who are left leaning
• looking at believing, those who believe in a personal God showing less of a decline than those who do not.

Question 6

confidence in the church

Answer 6

• Confidence in the church compared to other institutions - church generally lower than other institutions + always has been (doing worse than the police, educational system etc.) - men are less likely to have confidence in the church than women, and older people have higher levels, as are those who are married – socio-economic status and having children seems to make no difference. Lib Dems have the strongest confidence, followed by Labour supporters, where as being Conservative makes no difference compared with those who support no party.
• Generally people consider the church to be out of touch - lib Dems view CofE as most in touch

Question 7

religious leaders in politics

Answer 7

• Religious leaders being involved in politics: applying Chaves’ thesis that “secularisation is best understood not as a decline of religion, but as the declining scope of religious authority”
• ^ The trend is consistent, with a significant increase in those who think that religious leaders should not influence government decisions, and also an increase in those disapproving of religious leaders influencing the way people vote. Broken down, men have changed their view the most, and also those with higher educational qualifications – but these trends are also mimicked in those with strong religious affiliation, although when looked at in more detail, people generally agreed that religious leaders should speak out about issues that concern them – pointing to some lack in the detail of the analysis of these trends. If the question is phrased as to whether bishops or clergy should speak out on political issues and policy, then about 43.5% agreed and 43.1% disagreed – this being asked in the context of questions about whether the Archbishop of Canterbury was right to criticise a government cap on benefits so that they would rise below the inflation rate. - wording of the question is key, someone could be religious but have no faith in religious authority

Question 8

areas of continuity in attitudes

Answer 8

• the tendency for Anglicans to support the Conservative party
• similar finding was evident for Catholics in support of the labour party
• Anglicans show greater social authoritarianism and economic conservatism
• Compared the Catholics Anglicans have tended to be more wary of their country’s involvement in the EU

Question 9

religon and areas of change

Answer 9

• declining authority – in relation to both influencing leaders and voters
• change in social and moral views eg. On abortion + homosexuality – significant liberalisation – but its impact has been slower than the other categories – Catholics still tend to hold more traditionalist views

Question 10

analysis - positives

Answer 10

• a detailed single country focus - a methodological approach
• using some comparative cross-country data from other scholars
• an in depth and wide ranging assessment in secondary data analysis
• uses multiple surveys rather than relying on one single one - avoids over reliance on a single survey, there are perhaps some obvious issues with religious surveys
• attitudes generally analysed from the 1960s or 1970s onwards – with supplementary sources in the form of commercial opinion polls and one off surveys to provide other relevant data + uses surveys right up to the present day
• analyses and breaks down data into social groups - perhaps makes the writing too laden with studies and numbers
• acknowledges that question wording may have changed over time
• He admits himself the limitations of his study: most data started in the 1970s, for some topics there is just little available data, there is a need for more focused empirical research, only considered the general adult population + because of its seeking to use historical data, it has not been possible to identify the opinions of those belonging to non-Christian minority religions, as these data were not part of surveys in the 60s – the primary categories are Anglican, Catholic, other Christian, and those with no affiliation

Question 11

analysis - negatives

Answer 11

• excludes N Ireland
• some data quite general - using the ‘church’ and society as a whole
• Opinions of those belonging to non-Christian minority religions are not in the study, as that data wasn’t recorded in surveys in the 1960s

Question 12

multivariate analysis

Answer 12

o Men are less likely to be confident in the church than women
o Older people have higher levels of confidence
o Married people are more likely to have confidence
o Socio-economic status and having children didn’t make significant difference
o Lib Dems have the strongest confidence,, followed by Labour supports, Conservatives and those who support no party have lowest confidence