Abstract
Previous studies have shown that religion has a positive effect on civic engagement, both beliefs and behaviors increasing the level of social participation. The relationship between religion, state, and society, however, is different in postcommunist countries. The communist regimes imposed a forced secularization, isolating religion into the private life and reducing its impact on public affairs. Using data from European Values Study, 2008 wave, collected in 21 postcommunist countries, this chapter investigates how postcommunist legacy shapes social participation in countries from Central and Eastern Europe. The data shows that church attendance has a significant positive effect on civil activism in the countries under investigation, while belonging to a Protestant denomination boosts the civil engagement. When one takes into account country’s main religious denomination, people living in countries with a strong Catholic tradition are more inclined to participate in civil associations, while those living in Orthodox countries are less predisposed to be civically active.
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Notes
- 1.
Claudiu Tufiş’s work on this chapter was supported by CNCSIS-UEFISCSU, project number PN-II-RU-PD172/2010.
- 2.
In analyzing the relationship between religion and civic participation, we distinguish between the individual level and the country level. At the individual level we are interested in the relationship between individual’s religious denomination and his or her degree of civic participation. At the country level, we are interested in the relationship between the distribution of the population by religion and the average level of civic participation. In order to avoid unnecessary repetition, we also denote the individual level by microlevel or level 1 and the country level by macro level, level 2, aggregate level, or context.
- 3.
For more details about the European Values Study, see www.europeanvaluesstudy.eu
- 4.
We have estimated the final model with the dependent variable including membership in religious or church organizations as well (the results, not shown here, can be obtained from the authors), but the results do not differ substantively from the models presented here.
- 5.
The χ 2 test for the variance component between countries has a value of χ 2 = 2,192.93, with 20 degrees of freedom and p < 0.001.
- 6.
Basically, the three models are composed of an individual-level model and a country-level model. In the individual-level part, which is common to all three models, we predict whether an individual is belonging to a voluntary organization or not. In the country-level part, which is specific to each model, we predict the average level of participation at the country level.
- 7.
We have also estimated a model testing for a curvilinear effect of age, but the coefficient for age squared was not statistically significant.
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Voicu, M., Tufiş, C. (2013). Religion and Social Participation in Postcommunist Europe. In: de Hart, J., Dekker, P., Halman, L. (eds) Religion and Civil Society in Europe. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6815-4_11
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