The impact of religion on democracy, transparency, and gender equality

Abstract

How does religion influence secular values and modernization? I test several models where religious identity is examined as a possible predictor to support for secular values and modernization. Using a dataset I built in SPSS with data for 170 countries, I employ linear regression to test whether nine measure of religiosity and religious identification correlate with secular values such as freedom, democracy, transparency, and gender equality. I find that those values are less prevalent in countries that give more importance of religion and those where religion is restricted by the government. In contrast, social hostility toward religious minorities and religious identity are not significant factors in explaining those values.