Religion, Social Class, and Political Tolerance

Abstract

:This article examines the impact of individuals’ religious beliefs and practices, as well as their location in the social structure, on political tolerance-an important element of political culture. Here, political tolerance is measured as the willingness to extend civil liberties to those who want to overthrow the government by revolution. Employing this extreme form of political tolerance, hypotheses regarding its determinants are tested. The data utilized are from thirteen industrialized countries included in the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP)1996: Role of Government. Results show that both religion and social class affect political tolerance. In particular, non-Catholic Christians and non-Christians have lower levels of tolerance than those without a denominational preference. Independently of denomination, the more individuals attend church, the lower the level of their tolerance. Members of privileged social classes are particularly tolerant, and this effect remains significant even when controlling for social stratification: formal education, occupational prestige, and income. Moreover, the impact of religion and social class on tolerance is different in post-communist and advanced capitalist countries.