Income Inequality, World Polity, and Political Secularization: A Comparative Historical Analysis (1870–2014)

Previous works find descriptive evidence for a long-term political secularization trend during the nineteenth century, and a political desecularization trend starting in the late 1970s. This study, however, is an attempt to go beyond mere descriptions of global trends by introducing a methodological approach that can effectively account for the differences between countries in their paths either toward or away from political secularization. We use growth curve models to estimate country-specific trajectories of political secularization, and then condition these trajectories on nations’ historically predominant religions as well as geographic locations as a time-invariant independent variable. Overall, results suggest that there is a significant heterogeneity in trajectories of political secularization. Results suggest that as income inequality increases, so does the government’s preference for religion. Moreover, as countries become more embedded in the world polity (measured by increased number of international governmental organizations memberships), governments tend to lose their preference for religion.