Religious voting and the Role of Political Values

Cleavage voting studies are suffering from a lacking focus on the mechanisms that explain the association between social structure and party choice. Using high quality survey data covering a number of Western European countries, a path-analytical framework is applied here to study the association between religious denomination and voting. In particular, the role of five central political value orientations as possible mediators between religion and voting will be examined. The paper aims to contribute to our understanding of how and why religious belonging affects political preferences.