The connection of religiosity and political preferences: the experience of foreign and domestic research

Abstract

The subject of the study is the relationship between religiosity and political preferences of the voter; the object is actual statistical and scientific research on the problems of electoral behavior in Russia, Eastern Europe and the United States of America. The article summarizes the most popular research approaches in the study of the influence of religion on politics, the author presents a brief summary of the materials of influential scientific papers, on the basis of which he makes his own conclusions. The article presents a comparative analysis of domestic and foreign experience in the study of the relationship between religion and politics. The author notes that foreign studies in this area have a more extensive database, thanks to a long study of the problem of the relationship between religiosity and political preferences. Nevertheless, Russian researchers also continue to develop this topic and emphasize the increasing role of the religious factor in the politics of the modern Russian Federation. The results obtained by the author are achieved through the use of the methodology of review and critical analysis of statistical research and scientific literature. It is concluded that religiosity and political preferences in the United States and European countries have an impact on the final electoral field. In Russia, scientists recognize the insignificant influence of the religious factor on the general trends of political behavior. Nevertheless, among the believers of Russia, the connection between their religiosity and preferences exists and differs depending on the degree of this very religiosity. It is important to note that the use of data from polling stations and in-depth interviewing in the Russian reality can significantly distort the databases of sociological data. These features of the Russian research field create understandable limitations that are often ignored by researchers, and therefore the data are incomplete. In the conclusion of the article, the author notes the possibility of interaction of religiosity and political preferences through the construct above them.