Publications
- Which Countries Have State Religions?
- Download: PDF 275.16 KB
- by Barro, Robert J.; McCleary, Rachel M.
- For 188 independent countries in 2000, 72 had no state religion in 2000, 1970, and 1900;
58 had a state religion at all three dates; and 58 had some kind of transition. Among the 58
transitional countries, 12 had 2 transitions, 4 of which (former Soviet Republics in Asia) involved
different forms of state religion. We use a Hotelling-type spatial competition model with a distribution of religion
preferences to think about when the religion market would be monopolized. In this model, we
can assess how changes in exogenous variables affect the likelihood of monopoly. We argue that
these predictions carry over to a political setting in which the government decides whether to
institute a state religion.
- Publication Type: WCFIA Working Paper
- Published Date: February 2005
- Field of Interest: Comparative Politics
- Barro, Robert J., McCleary, Rachel M. "Which Countries Have State Religions?" February 2005.
