1. The role of religiosity in political
and civic participation
Daniela Panica
National University of Political Studies and Public Administration
2. Research Questions
General research question: How does religiosity affect civic
participation?
Hypothesis: People with higher levels of interpersonal trust, church
attendance and spiritual religiosity have higher levels of civic
participation.
3. Introduction
• Praying, Meditation;
• The importance of God for in
individual;
• The importance of religion
within one’s life;
Spiritual
Religiosity
• Church attendance,
• Attendance to church events.
Social
religiosity
• Voting
Institutionalized
Civic
participation
• Strike attendance;
• Demonstration attendance;
• Petition signing;
• Boycott attendance
Non-
Institutionalized
Civic
participation
4. Literature review
In his book “Bowling Alone”, (Robert D Putnam 2000) argued that there are two
types of social capital:
• Bonding capital (for groups that have a common identity, or share a common
resemblance: family, friends, ethnic groups, fundamentalist religious groups)
• Bridging capital (helps develop trust within groups or between people that are
unfamiliar with one another: voluntary associations).
The last type of social capital is the one that allows coordination and cooperation
between individuals that do not share a common identity, but can work to
develop one. Regarding religious institutions, Robert Putnam claims that they
“directly support a wide range of social activities well beyond conventional
worship.”, also “churchgoers are substantially more likely to be involved in secular
organisations, to vote and participate politically in other ways, to have deeper
social connections.” (Robert D Putnam 2000, vol. 20, chap. 4).
5. Literature review
• In other words, church goers can participate in many other kinds of
activities other than religious service, having an opportunity to train
certain civic and communication skills, which later on might enable
people to become politically involved. In other words, something as
private as religion or religious activities can become a source of civic
participation.
6. Methods & Data
Using a sample representative for the population of Romania, from the
2011 database “Religie si Comportament Religios”, which took place
during 01-21 of July 2011, on a sample of 1.204 people, with and a
margin of error of +/-2% at a trust level of 95% for the entire
population.
7. Findings I
Religious
confession
Interpersonal Trust Variables for religiosity
Frequency of prayer/meditation The Importance of God
Most people
can be trusted
Can’t be too
careful
Everyday On special
occasions
(trouble)
No Not important
(Values of 1-
4)
Neither
important nor
unimportant
(values of 5-7)
Important
(values of 8-
10)
Orthodox
8.9% 91.1% 63.0% 33.5% 3.5% 3% 13.8% 83.4%
Greek-Catholic
11.5% 88.5% 72.2% 25.9% 1.9% 2% 7.4% 90.8%
Roman-Catholic
13.3% 86.7% 75.1% 23.5% 1.4% 2.7% 6.2% 91.2%
Protestant
15.4% 84.6% 69.0% 27.4% 3.6% 4.2% 15% 80.9%
Neo-Protestant
15.6% 84.4% 92.7% 6.6% 0.7% 1.6% 2.3% 96.2%
8. Findings II
Religiou
s
confessi
on
Variables for religiosity
Church attendance The importance of religion
Daily Few
times a
week
Once a
week
At least
once a
month
Only for
importa
nt
religious
holidays
Once a year
or less
Never Important (values of
8-10)
Very unimportant Unimpo
rtant
Importa
nt
Very
importa
nt
Orthodo
x
2.2% 5.3% 24.0% 22.9% 36.3% 6.9% 2.4%
83.4%
1.4% 9.0% 48.9% 40.7%
Greek-
Catholic 9.2% 9.8% 38.9% 18.4% 19.0% 4.1% 0.6%
90.8%
1.3% 5.6% 44.7% 48.3%
Roman-
Catholic 4.8% 15.3% 39.8% 16.7% 17.5% 5.1% 0.8%
91.2%
0.3% 6.3% 36.5% 57.0%
Protesta
nt
3.3% 9.3% 31.0% 23.2% 19.3% 10.2% 3.6%
80.9%
3.4% 10.2% 40.4% 46.0%
Neo-
Protesta
nt
6.5% 52.2% 31.7% 4.6% 3.2% 0.4% 1.5%
96.2%
1.8% 3.6% 16.2% 78.5%
9. Findings III
Religious
confession
Variables for political participation
Singed petition Boycott attendance Demonstration attendance Strike attendance
Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No
Orthodox
7.4% 92.6% 1.8% 98.2% 3.6% 96.4% 3.8% 96.2%
Greek-
Catholic
12.1% 87.9% 4.1% 95.9% 5.4% 94.6% 6.3% 93.7%
Roman-
Catholic
9.5% 90.5% 1.4% 98.6% 5.9% 94.1% 5.9% 94.1%
Protestant
15.6% 84.4% 1.2% 98.8% 4.3% 95.7% 7.0% 93.0%
Neo-
Protestant
6.5% 93.5% 0.8% 99.2% 2.1% 97.9% 1.7% 98.3%
The least present in non-
institutionalized forms of civic
participation
10. Findings IV
Voting Intention Signing Petition Strike Attendance
Frequency of
prayer
0.029
1.224 1.772
Church
Attendance
0.049
1.248** 1.102
Age 0.061* .673*** .923
Education 0.196*** 2.371*** 1.816**
Income 0.00000276*** 1.000** 1.000
The importance of
religion
0.004
.833 .851
The importance of
God
-0.004
.883* .877
Constant 0.004 .070 .023
Nagelkerke R/ R2 0.018 0.152 0.037
137,1% higher chance of signing a
petition for a one unit increase in
education
24,8% higher chance of signing a
petition for a one unit increase in
church attendance
32,7% lower chance of signing a
petition for a one year increase in
age
81,6% higher chance of strike
attendance for a one unit increase
in education
11,7% lower chance of signing a
petition for a one unit increase in
the importance of God
11. Conclusion
• Neo protestant denominations have a higher level of social and
spiritual religiosity, while the orthodox denomination has the lowest
level of social religiosity;
• The orthodox denomination has the lowest level of interpersonal
trust, while neo-protestants have the highest level of interpersonal
trust;
• Social forms of religiosity have an important effect on petition
signing, education and age ;
