ABSTRACT
Wald comments: "Religious institutions are neither designed nor intended to mobilize political action. Yet, across the globe, they seem to have done precisely that." This chapter examines this significant religious influence on politics. It discusses first the resources element of political science literature and addresses opportunity in the context of explaining when religious organizations choose to engage in political mobilization. The resource mobilization literature posits that the ability to organize for political action is heavily influenced by the resources that are available for mobilization and the success of a political movement in finding a way to mobilize these resources. Another branch of the resource mobilization literature, developed by Mancur Olson, argues that the types of resources really necessary for political mobilization are different than one would expect. This is because of what Olson classically termed as the "free rider" problem.
