ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses religious traditions in historical, socio-demographic, and political context. Religious traditions and denominational families clearly influenced the partisanship, voting turnout, and vote choices of white Protestants in the 1988 election. Members of evangelical denominations have been predominately Democratic in partisan identification, while members of mainline denominations have been largely Republican. The measures of religious commitment include religiosity, religious salience, and doctrinal orthodoxy. The chapter examines the role of white Protestants in the fall campaign, and the future of evangelical and mainline Protestantism in the political process. It is important to note that evangelicals in the presidential elections have given a greater share of their votes to Republican candidates than have mainline Protestants. Evangelicals have for several decades voted at lower rates than their mainline counterparts. The chapter analyzes how several facets of religion affected the political behavior of evangelical and mainline Protestants in the 1988 presidential election using data from the 1988 American National Election Study.
