Do Religious Justifications Distort Policy Debates? Some Empirics on the Case for Public Reason

Scholars engaged in debates about the use of public reason often view religious arguments as being out of bounds. Yet the real-world impact of religious discourse remains under-explored. This study contributes to research in this area with an empirical test looking at the impact of religious argumen...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Politics and religion
Authors: Kettell, Steven 1973- (Author) ; Djupe, Paul A. 1971- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Cambridge Univ. Press [2020]
In: Politics and religion
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Terminal care / Politics / Debate / Argumantation / Religion
RelBib Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
CG Christianity and Politics
ZC Politics in general
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:Scholars engaged in debates about the use of public reason often view religious arguments as being out of bounds. Yet the real-world impact of religious discourse remains under-explored. This study contributes to research in this area with an empirical test looking at the impact of religious arguments on a particular policy debate. A survey experiment explored the effects of religious and secular cues with varied policy directions on the issue of assisted dying. The findings showed that secular arguments were considerably more likely to elicit a positive response, and that, while religious arguments were not a conversation stopper, they produced significant distortions in political perceptions among participants, though not necessarily along the identity lines critical to the public reason debate.
ISSN:1755-0491
Contains:Enthalten in: Politics and religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S1755048320000097