Religion And Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing The People Of God

224 Pages·2019·2.277 MB·English

by  Amy Erica Smith

R EL IGION
and
BR A ZIL I A N
DEMOCR AC Y
Mobilizing the People of God
Amy Erica Smith

ReligionandBrazilianDemocracy
As Brazilian democracy faces a crisis of legitimacy, political divisions
growamongCatholic,evangelical,andnonreligiouscitizens.Whathas
causedreligiouspolarizationinBrazilianpolitics?Doesreligiouspoli-
tics shore up or undermine democracy? Religion and Brazilian
Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God uses engaging anecdotes
and draws on a wealth of data from surveys and survey experiments
with clergy, citizens, and legislators to explain the causes and conse-
quences of Brazil’s “culture wars.” Though political parties create
culture-warconflictinestablisheddemocracies,inBrazil’sweakparty
systemreligiousleadersinsteaddrivedivisions.Clergyleveragelegisla-
tiveandelectoralpoliticsstrategicallytopromotetheirowntheological
goals and to help their religious groups compete. In the process, they
often lead politicians and congregants. Ultimately, religious politics
pushes Brazilian politics rightward and further fragments parties. Yet
Religion and Brazilian Democracy also demonstrates that clergy-led
politicsstabilizesBraziliandemocracyandenhancesrepresentation.
AmyEricaSmithisAssociateProfessorofPoliticalScienceatIowaState
University. Smith’s research has attracted funding from the National
ScienceFoundation,Fulbright,Mellon,andTempleton,andtheAward
forEarlyAchievementinResearchatIowaStateUniversity.Herwork
on democracy in developing countries has appeared in top political-
science journals and in the Portuguese-language book Legitimidade
e qualidade da democracia no Brasil: Uma visão da cidadania (2011,
withLucioRennó,MatthewLayton,andFredericoBatistaPereira).
CambridgeStudiesinSocialTheory,Religion,andPolitics
Editors
DavidE.Campbell,UniversityofNotreDame
AnnaM.Grzymala-Busse,StanfordUniversity
KennethD.Wald,UniversityofFlorida,Gainesville
RichardL.Wood,UniversityofNewMexico
FoundingEditor
DavidC.Leege,UniversityofNotreDame
Insocietiesaroundtheworld,dynamicchangesareoccurringattheintersectionofreligion
andpolitics.Insomesettings,thesechangesaredrivenbyinternalshiftswithinreligions;in
others,byshiftingpoliticalstructures,institutionalcontexts,orbywarorotherupheavals.
Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion, and Politics publishes books that seek to
understand and explain these changes to a wide audience, drawing on insight from social
theoryandoriginalempiricalanalysis.Wewelcomeworkbuiltonstrongtheoreticalframing,
careful research design, and rigorous methods using any social scientific method(s)
appropriate to the study. The series examines the relationship of religion and politics
broadlyunderstood,includingdirectlypolitical behavior, actionin civilsocietyand inthe
mediating institutions that undergird politics, and the ways religion shapes the cultural
dynamicsunderlyingpoliticalandcivilsociety.
Mikhail A. Alexseev and Sufian N. Zhemukhov, Mass Religious Ritual and Intergroup
Tolerance:TheMuslimPilgrims’Paradox
LukeBretherton,ResurrectingDemocracy:Faith,Citizenship,andthePoliticsofaCommon
Life
David E. Campbell, John C. Green, and J. Quin Monson, Seeking the Promised Land:
MormonsandAmericanPolitics
RyanL.Claassen,GodlessDemocratsandPiousRepublicans?PartyActivists,PartyCapture,
andthe“GodGap”
Darren W. Davisand Donald Pope-Davis, Perseverancein theParish? ReligiousAttitudes
fromaBlackCatholicPerspective
PaulA.DjupeandChristopherP.Gilbert,ThePoliticalInfluenceofChurches
Joel S. Fetzer and J. Christopher Soper, Muslims and the State in Britain, France, and
Germany
FrançoisForet,ReligionandPoliticsintheEuropeanUnion:TheSecularCanopy
JonathanFox,AWorldSurveyofReligionandtheState
Jonathan Fox, Political Secularism, Religion, and the State: A Time Series Analysis of
WorldwideData
AnthonyGill,ThePoliticalOriginsofReligiousLiberty
Brian J. Grim and Roger Finke, The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and
ConflictintheTwenty-FirstCentury
KeesvanKersbergenandPhilipManow,editors,Religion,ClassCoalitions,andWelfareStates
Mirjam Kunkler, John Madeley, and Shylashri Shankar, A Secular Age beyond the West:
Religion,LawandtheStateinAsia,theMiddleEastandNorthAfrica
(continuedafterindex)
Religion and Brazilian Democracy
Mobilizing the People of God
AMY ERICA SMITH
IowaStateUniversity
UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridgecb28bs,UnitedKingdom
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108482110
doi:10.1017/9781108699655
©AmyEricaSmith2019
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2019
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainbyClaysLtd,ElcografS.p.A.
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
names:Smith,AmyErica,1976–author.
title:ReligionandBraziliandemocracy:mobilizingthepeopleofGod/AmyEricaSmith.
description:Cambridge,UK;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,2019.|Series:
Cambridgestudiesinsocialtheory,religionandpolitics|Includesbibliographicalreferences
andindex.
identifiers:lccn2018045104|isbn9781108482110(hardback)
subjects:lcsh:Christianityandpolitics–Brazil.|Evangelicalism–Politicalaspects–Brazil.
|CatholicChurch–Politicalactivity–Brazil.|Democracy–Brazil.|Socialchange–Political
aspects–Brazil.|Brazil–Politicsandgovernment–1985–|BISAC:POLITICALSCIENCE/
Government/General.
classification:lccbr115.p7s562019|ddc261.70981–dc23
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isbn978-1-108-48211-0Hardback
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anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain,
accurateorappropriate.
ForTibi,Oscar,andAdam
Commuitoamor
Şicudrag

Contents
ListofFigures pageviii
ListofTables x
Acknowledgments xi
part i introduction 1
1 Introduction 3
2 Clergy,Congregants,andReligiousPoliticians 26
3 MethodsandCaseStudies 46
part ii what clergy think, say, and do 59
4 WhatClergyThinkandSay:ReligiousTeachingsandPoliticalViews 61
5 WhatClergyDo:EncouragingPartisanandElectoralPolitics 80
part iii how congregants respond 97
6 ChurchInfluenceonCitizens’PolicyViewsandPartisanship 99
7 ChurchInfluenceonVotingBehavior 113
8 ChurchInfluenceonCitizenSupportforDemocracy 130
part iv representation 147
9 TheRepresentationalTriangle 149
10 Conclusion:MobilizingthePeopleofGod 162
Afterword 176
AppendixA. ListofFocusGroupsandChurchObservations 178
AppendixB. Focus-GroupProtocol 181
AppendixC. VariableCodingandInformationonStudies 183
References 184
Index 203
vii
Figures
1.1 ReligiousaffiliationinBrazil page11
1.2 CharacteristicsofBrazilianschoosingnon-Catholic
religiousaffiliations 15
2.1 Relationshipsofinfluenceandrepresentationwithin
religiousgroups 44
3.1 Membershipchanges,outreach,andcompetition(clergy
reports) 52
3.2 Corereligiousbeliefsatthesitesofthequantitative
congregationalstudy 56
4.1 Prioritiesinpolicy-relatedteachings,byreligioustradition 65
4.2 Competitivethreataffectscoreandpolicy-related
teachings–butonlyamongCatholics 69
4.3 Perceivedstateneutralityorbias 75
4.4 Determinantsofperceivedneutralityorbiasofthepoliticalsystem 76
5.1 Church-leaderdiscussionofelectioncampaigns 83
5.2 Competitivethreataffectslegislativeadvocacyandcandidate
endorsements 90
5.3 Thequasi-experimentalimpactofthegrievancetreatment
onclergysupportforpoliticalactivism 95
6.1 Religiousaffiliationandpolicypreferences 103
6.2 ReligiousaffiliationandsupportfortheWorkers’Party 105
6.3 Clusteringinpolicyviewsateightcongregationsand
communitysites 108
6.4 Determinantsofvarianceinpolicyviews 111
7.1 Campaigningandelectoraldiscussionineight
congregations,JuizdeFora,2014 118
7.2 CongregationalmessagesandturnoutinJuizdeFora,
2008,andBrazil,2014 121
viii