Erin Lee Wells and Dr. Kirk Hawkins, Political Science
Populism is a set of ideas that sees a strict dichotomy of corrupt elite suppressing the unified will of people (Hawkins 2009). From the Populist Party of the 1890’s to the current day Tea Party, populist ideas have a long history of use in America and have been used in a number of pressing political arguments (Kazin 1995). While populist attitudes have been very well documented and frequently studied in countries outside the United States, (Hawkins 2009) few scholars have documented populist attitudes in America. Further, little work has been done to explain where populist ideas come from. Despite all we know about religions’ influence on political beliefs, (Wald 2011) there are few significant studies that have explored the connection between an individual’s populist attitudes and their religion. This project corrects that error and fills that void of knowledge. Using the 2010 Cooperative Congressional Elections Study data, I explored the connection between populism and religion. My findings better explain the causes of this democratic radicalism in the United States and causes of populist movements such as the Tea Party.
By analyzing the previous literature regarding populism and religions’ influence on politics, I hypothesized that Evangelical Protestants would have greater populist attitudes than members of other religious groups because of their unique and strict creed, their decentralized structure, and active group participation. I further hypothesized that the more religious an Evangelical is within their tradition, the greater their populist attitude will be.
In order to test my first hypothesis I calculated the average populist attitude score for each of the major religious traditions. The findings are reported in Figure 1. I found that on average, Evangelical Protestants do have a higher populist attitude than many other religious traditions. Evangelical Protestants populist attitude score is 12.24 (on a 0-16 scale). This score is statistically higher than the scores of Mainline Protestants (11.71), Jewish (10.96), and those with no religious preference (11.06).
To test my second hypothesis I averaged populist attitude scores of Evangelicals with varying religiosity levels. The findings are reported in Figure 2. It turns out that increasing religiosity levels of Evangelicals does not influence how populist they are. While it appears there are some differences, none of the differences between the religiosity categories and the baseline Evangelical categories are statistically significant. It is likely that increased religiosity in Evangelicals doesn’t influence their populism because most Evangelicals have high religiosity levels. Therefore, just being an Evangelical is enough to raise one’s level of populism.
Political scientists have often noted that Evangelicals have a unique political perspective. They are highly socially conservative and often very active in a number of political groups. In many ways, Evangelicals seem to have a different world view compared to members of other religious traditions. Through this study, I have shown that Evangelicals unique viewpoint is likely caused
by their populist attitudes. Because Evangelicals do look at politics in a populist way, they have a different perspective than Catholics or even Mainline Protestants leading to their unique political opinions and policy preferences.
While working on this project has been a challenge, the overall experience has been valuable. I’ve had to enlarge both my knowledge of my field and my ability to create and study new questions within it. I have certainly come to appreciate mentored learning. Professor Hawkins taught me an amazing amount about the field of political science. Conducting my own research has given me the opportunity to do something with my education outside of the classroom. I presented this research at the Mary Lou Fulton poster conference where I was featured as the student speaker.
Conducting this ORCA project has fulfilled me as a student. I certainly plan on continuing the mentor tradition by seeking more mentors as I continue in my education, and eventually becoming a mentor myself as I learn and grow in my future field.