Measures of importance of religion in electoral studies: a literature review

This article seeks to identify the main characteristics of electoral studies, using a religious salience measure, and to test several plausible explanations for the variation in the reported effect of religious salience on electoral behaviour. It builds upon an original dataset that contains 244 articles on the topic published in social sciences journals between 1956 and 2012. Variation in the reported effect of religious salience on electoral behaviour is documented and traced back to different ways of linking orientation to action at the voter level. A few electoral studies are chosen to exemplify the challenges met, while others are probed to help envision challenges ahead. Among these is the need for more relevant measures of the potential impact of religion on electoral behaviour at the voter level. Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd