Military Preparedness and Religion: Methodological Problems in Using Modal Religion in Cross-National Research
Levels of military spending and army size are predicted using data on modal religion, economic development, recency of war, and size of electorate for 83 nations. Primory attention is given to modal religion and in particular to the methodological problems associated with employing that variable in...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sage Publications
1975
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| In: |
Review of religious research
Year: 1975, Volume: 16, Issue: 3, Pages: 208-220 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Levels of military spending and army size are predicted using data on modal religion, economic development, recency of war, and size of electorate for 83 nations. Primory attention is given to modal religion and in particular to the methodological problems associated with employing that variable in cross-national research. These problems include, first, the need to avoid the individualistic fallacy of assuming that relationships among individuals hold for aggregate units as well. Secondly, as is true of any mode, modal religion does not measure characteristics of the entire population; consequently, modal religion is of doubtful utility in modern-day, pluralistic societies. Thirdly, use of modal religion of nations as a predictor variable rests on the assumption that the values and behavior of persons who identify with a given religion are congruent with that religion's theology, an assumption which has been refuted by a considerable amount of research in diverse settings. Replacement of this "psychological consonance" model of religion's influence with White and Durkheim's "interactional" model is urged. Even then, however, one would still be restricted by a final research problem which is endemic to all cross-national research: the limited number of nations (at present there are 152) places a very low ceiling on the sample size possible for cross-national research. Consequently, given the likelihood of multicolinearity, one is likely to find it impossible satisfactorily to test alternative hypotheses regardless of whether the variables used include modal religion. |
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| ISSN: | 2211-4866 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review of religious research
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/3510358 |