Divined intervention : religious institutions and collective action /
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ann Arbor, Michigan :
University of Michigan Press,
2020.
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Abstract: | Divined Intervention provides an innovative institutionalist account for why religion enables political activism in some settings, but not others. The author argues that decentralized religious institutions facilitate grassroots collective action, and he uses a multimethod approach to test this explanation against several theoretical alternatives, all in Mexico. Utilizing nationally representative Mexican survey data, the book's statistical analyses demonstrate that decentralization by the Catholic Church is positively associated with greater individual political activism across the country. Using case studies centered in Chiapas, YucataÌn, and Morelos, the author shows that religious decentralization encourages reciprocal cooperative interactions at a local level. This then increases the ability of the religion to provide goods and services to its local adherents, and these processes then prompt the growth of organizational capacities at the grassroots, enabling secular political activism. Because this theoretical framework is grounded in human behavior, it shows how local institutions politically organize at the grassroots level. The book also offers an improved understanding of religion's relationship with political activism, a topic of ever-increasing significance as religion fuels political engagement across the globe. The book further synthesizes seemingly disparate approaches to the study of collective action into a cohesive framework. Finally, there is some debate as to the impact of ethnic diversity on the provision of public goods, and this study helps us understand how local institutional configurations can enable collective action across ethnic boundaries. |
|---|---|
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xii, 219 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780472126545 0472126547 |
| DOI: | 10.3998/mpub.11413696 |