ABSTRACT
Political scientists have been interested in the topic of political participation in its contemporary sense since the 1950s. There were periods when political participation seemed to be understood and all its predictors identified. Nevertheless, changes in social structure, in economic and political conditions, inevitably brought changes in political participation, thus causing a revival of research interest in this topic. The list of factors that could influence political participation has been expanding constantly, from socio-demographic characteristics of the individual to interest in politics, the resources needed to take part in politics and religious factors (Brady et al. 1995; Cho et al. 2006). At least since the 1970s, religion in the United States has been perceived as a power capable of shaping citizens’ political participation. Macaluso and Wanat (1979) demonstrated that electoral turnout was connected with voters’ degree of religiosity: Americans who attended religious services regularly were more active citizens as well. Further studies revealed differences in political participation and electoral behaviour between followers of different religious traditions – not only in the United States, but also in Europe – that were considered to be much more secular (Beyerlein and Chaves 2003; Knutsen 2004; Li and Marsh 2008). Other scholars paid more attention to the degree of individual religiosity as a potential predictor of political participation and showed that religious and non-religious people behave differently regardless of their religious affiliation (Harris 1994; Jones-Correa and Leal 2001; Wald et al. 1990). Despite predictions of the classis secularization theory, religion in the twenty-first century still has an impact on individual values and behavioural patterns. Though religious attendance rates are falling, major religious traditions are still influential because they become embedded in culture. One doesn’t have to attend religious services regularly to share the values of a country’s predominant religious tradition because these values are transmitted through the educational system, state policy and mass media (Norris and Inglehart, 2011). In the United States, politicians are seeking support from religious voters, while in Europe, Christian-Democratic parties remain popular (Van der Brug et al. 2009).
