On religion and public policy: does Catholicism make a difference?

Abstract

This paper suggests that differences in reIigious adherence and/or in degrees of secularization as between advanced nations may be as relevant to understanding cross-national variance in a wide range of public policy outcomes as are the impacts of socioeconomic and political factors. The prima facie evidence for such a thesis is demonstrated in areas as diverse as welfare expenditure, family policy and labour market policy outcomes, and is shown to have a particuIar saIience wherever gender-related outcomes are at issue. On the basis of this evidence, it is suggested that, in policy outcome terms at least, it is possible to identify a distinctive Catholic family of nations consisting of a grouping of core Western European and Southern European countries. Show more