The Last Refuge of the Scoundrel: Religion and Nationalism in Global Perspective

The relationship between religious and political institutions, or religious and national loyalties, is an eternally contested one. A part of the reason for this tension is ideological: most of the major world religions teach that adherents should primarily be loyal to a set of religious doctrines and/or to fellow believers or humanity in general rather than to the nation or national government. There are notable historical examples of conflict between religious and state officials, but there are as many occasions of a close link between religion and the state. To test the effect of religiosity on nationalism, we analyze data from the 57 countries of the 2005-2008 wave of the World Values Survey, a survey that includes measures of both religious commitment and national loyalty. We find that individual religiosity boosts individual nationalism, and that religious countries tend to be more nationalistic. In disprortionately religious countries, individual religiosity has a stronger effect on nationalism than in less religious states. Finally, this interaction effect is particularly strong in political democracies. These data disconfirm the theory that religion promotes a transnational identity, and confirm the view that political elites coopt religion for their political gain.