Nikolova, Elena and Polansky, Jakub (2021) Conversionary Protestants Do Not Cause Democracy. BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, 51 (4). pp. 1723-1733. ISSN 0007-1234, 1469-2112
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In The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy, Robert D. Woodberry (2012) claims that conversionary Protestantism influenced the emergence of stable democracies around the world. While his historical analysis is exhaustive, the accompanying empirical evidence suffers from severe inconsistencies. This letter replicates Woodberry's analysis using twenty-six alternative democracy measures and extends the time period over which the democracy measures are averaged. These two simple modifications lead to the breakdown of Woodberry's results. We find no significant relationship between Protestant missions and the development of democracy, which raises concerns about the robustness and broader applicability of Woodberry's findings. The letter discusses some alternative explanations for Woodberry's results, which can inform future research on this topic.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | religion; democracy; conversionary Protestantism; Christianity |
| Subjects: | 300 Social sciences > 320 Political science |
| Divisions: | Institute for East and Southeast European Studies (IESES) |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Sep 2022 06:59 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Sep 2022 06:59 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/47230 |
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