Guiding the Hand of God: The Influence of State Involvement in Religion on Religionational Identity

Abstract

Religion remains a core component of political identity in many countries despite predictions that religious identity would decrease in importance as part of political identity in the modern era. The degree to which religious and national identity overlap, moreover, varies significantly across countries and among individuals. The factors explaining this variation remain undertheorized. This dissertation offers a novel explanation for both the degree of overlap between religious and national identity, and the strength of this fused identity: the influence of state involvement in religion.

First, I introduce the concept of religionational fusion (RNF), or the manner in and degree to which religious identity constitutes national identity. I break down this concept into two dimensions: 1) imbrication, or the degree to which religious identity and national identity overlap as perceived by members of each collective identity, and 2) primacy, or the degree of salience religious and national identity holds within an individual’s hierarchy of collective identities. I then develop my explanatory concept of state involvement in religion. I argue that each dimension of state involvement—religious regulation as repression and subsidy, religious symbols, and religious rhetoric—has direct and independent effects on the degree of RNF among individual members of the dominant religion within a state.

State involvement influences RNF by sending signals to citizens concerning the ascribed “proper” relationship between religious and national identity. As a primary arbiter of national identity in many nation-states, the state is uniquely positioned to both send and maintain these signals. When the state sends or reinforces negative signals regarding its position on religion as a component of national identity by repressing the dominant faith, RNF is expected to decrease. When the state sends positive signals concerning the role of religion as a component of national identity through the provision of religious subsidies and the use of religious symbols and religious rhetoric, RNF is expected to increase.

I engage in a two-step empirical analysis. First, I use the Central Asian cases of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to illustrate the spectrum of state involvement in religion and to demonstrate that changes in state involvement in religion are correlated with religiopolitical attitudes, a proxy for RNF. Second, I test my hypotheses on the determinants of RNF using an original survey in Kyrgyzstan and a cross-national sample based on original and existing data from 54 states. I find evidence supporting the hypothesis that perceptions of religious repression decrease RNF at the individual level in Kyrgyzstan, though I also find evidence that higher levels of repression appear to be correlated with higher aggregate levels of RNF. I also find significant support for the hypotheses that religious subsidies, state use of religious symbols, and state use of religious rhetoric are associated with higher levels of RNF.

My findings are significant not only for understanding how religion becomes a component of national identity, but also for understanding religious influence in the development of political attitudes and behavior. They also have testable implications for understanding the construction of national identity and its components beyond religion.