ABSTRACT
Scholars disagree about the political consequences of Protestant conversion and have turned to cultural and resource models to understand the social and political ramifications of the religious shift. A common theme of the "different religions, different politics" literature is that evangelical/Pentecostal forms of Protestantism are more democratic than Catholicism in two ways. One set of theories looks at Protestant growth through a political culture lens that derives from Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1934): conversion to Protestantism changes individual attitudes about lifestyle, work ethic, and authority, which over time effects political culture. Such value explanations explore the link between religious attitudes and the political attitudes necessary for democracy such as tolerance, social trust, and support for democratic norms. Yet, scholars such as Christian Lalive D'Espinay (1967) argue that the value-system of Protestants is authoritarian, hierarchical, and of no use to practical sociopolitical empowerment.
