Evangelicals and Electoral Politics in Latin America: A Kingdom of This World

339 Pages·2023·4.07 MB·English

by  Taylor C. Boas

EvangelicalsandElectoralPoliticsinLatinAmerica
Why are religious minorities well represented and politically influential in
somedemocraciesbutnotothers?FocusingonevangelicalChristiansinLatin
America, this book argues that religious minorities seek and gain electoral
representation when they face significant threats to their material interests
and worldview, and when their community is not internally divided by
cross-cutting cleavages. Differences in Latin American evangelicals’ political
ambitions emerged as a result of two critical junctures: episodes of secular
reform in the early twentieth century and the rise of sexuality politics at
the turn of the twenty-first. In Brazil, significant threats at both junctures
prompted extensive electoral mobilization; in Chile, minimal threats meant
that mobilization lagged. In Peru, where major cleavages divide both evan-
gelicals and broader society, threats prompt less electoral mobilization than
otherwise expected. The multi-method argument leverages interviews, con-
tent analysis, survey experiments, ecological analysis, and secondary case
studiesofColombia,CostaRica,andGuatemala.
TaylorC.BoasisAssociateProfessorofPoliticalScienceandLatinAmerican
StudiesatBostonUniversity.HeisauthorofPresidentialCampaignsinLatin
America:ElectoralStrategiesandSuccessContagion(2016).
Published online by Cambridge University Press
CambridgeStudiesinSocialTheory,Religion,andPolitics
Editors
DavidE.Campbell,UniversityofNotreDame
AnnaM.Grzymala-Busse,StanfordUniversity
RichardL.Wood,UniversityofNewMexico
FoundingEditors
DavidC.Leege,UniversityofNotreDame
KennethD.Wald,UniversityofFlorida,Gainesville
Insocietiesaroundtheworld,dynamicchangesareoccurringattheintersection
ofreligionandpolitics.Insomesettings,thesechangesaredrivenbyinternalshifts
withinreligions;inothers,byshiftingpoliticalstructures,institutionalcontexts,
orbywarorotherupheavals.CambridgeStudiesinSocialTheory,Religion,and
Politics publishes books that seek to understand and explain these changes to
a wide audience, drawing on insight from social theory and original empirical
analysis.Wewelcomeworkbuiltonstrongtheoreticalframing,carefulresearch
design,andrigorousmethodsusinganysocialscientificmethod(s)appropriateto
the study. The series examines the relationship of religion and politics broadly
understood,includingdirectlypoliticalbehavior,actionincivilsocietyandinthe
mediating institutions that undergird politics, and the ways religion shapes the
culturaldynamicsunderlyingpoliticalandcivilsociety.
JoelS.FetzerandJ.ChristopherSoper,MuslimsandtheStateinBritain,France,
andGermany
PippaNorrisandRonaldInglehart,SacredandSecular:ReligionandPolitics
Worldwide
AnthonyGill,ThePoliticalOriginsofReligiousLiberty
JonathanFox,AWorldSurveyofReligionandtheState
PaulA.DjupeandChristopherP.Gilbert,ThePoliticalInfluenceofChurches
AhmetT.Kuru,SecularismandStatePoliciestowardReligion:TheUnited
States,France,andTurkey
KeesvanKersbergenandPhilipManow,editors,Religion,ClassCoalitions,and
WelfareStates
BrianJ.GrimandRogerFinke,ThePriceofFreedomDenied:Religious
PersecutionandConflictinthe21stCentury
PippaNorrisandRonaldInglehart,SacredandSecular:ReligionandPolitics
WorldwideSecondEdition
KarrieJ.Koesel,ReligionandAuthoritarianism:Cooperation,Conflict,andthe
Consequences
DavidE.Campbell,JohnC.Green,andJ.QuinMonson,SeekingthePromised
Land:MormonsandAmericanPolitics
FrançoisForet,ReligionandPoliticsintheEuropeanUnion:TheSecularCanopy
LukeBretherton,ResurrectingDemocracy:Faith,Citizenship,andthePoliticsof
aCommonLife
JonathanFox,PoliticalSecularism,Religion,andtheState:ATimeSeries
AnalysisofWorldwideData
Published online by Cambridge University Press
PeterStamatov,TheOriginsofGlobalHumanitarianism:Religion,Empires,
andAdvocacy
RyanL.Claassen,GodlessDemocratsandPiousRepublicans?PartyActivists,
PartyCapture,andthe“GodGap”
DavidT.Smith,ReligiousPersecutionandPoliticalOrderintheUnitedStates
DamonMayrl,SecularConversions:PoliticalInstitutionsandReligious
EducationintheUnitedStatesandAustralia,1800–2000
JeremyMenchik,IslamandDemocracyinIndonesia:Tolerancewithout
Liberalism
AmyReynolds,FreeTradeandFaithfulGlobalization:SavingtheMarket
MikhailA.AlexseevandSufianN.Zhemukhov,MassReligiousRitualand
IntergroupTolerance:TheMuslimPilgrims’Paradox
DarrenW.DavisandDonaldPope-Davis,PerseveranceintheParish?Religious
AttitudesfromaBlackCatholicPerspective
AndrewR.Lewis,TheRightsTurninConservativeChristianPolitics:How
AbortionTransformedtheCultureWars
J.ChristopherSoperandJoel.S.Fetzer,ReligionandNationalisminGlobal
Perspective
SadiaSaeed,PoliticsofDesecularization:LawandtheMinorityQuestionin
Pakistan
KennethD.Wald,TheFoundationsofAmericanJewishLiberalism
MirjamKunkler,JohnMadeley,andShylashriShankar,editors,ASecularAge
BeyondtheWest:Religion,LawandtheStateinAsia,theMiddleEastand
NorthAfrica
DavidE.Campbell,GeoffreyC.Layman,andJohnC.Green,SecularSurge:A
NewFaultLineinAmericanPolitics
GaryJ.AdlerJr.,EmpathyBeyondUSBorders:TheChallengesof
TransnationalCivicEngagement
RamazanKılınç,AlienCitizens:TheStateandReligiousMinoritiesinTurkey
andFrance
AmyEricaSmith,ReligionandBrazilianDemocracy:MobilizingthePeopleof
God
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Evangelicals and Electoral
Politics in Latin America
A Kingdom of This World
TAYLOR C. BOAS
BostonUniversity
Published online by Cambridge University Press
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781009275071
DOI:10.1017/9781009275088
© TaylorC.Boas2023
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexceptionandtotheprovisions
ofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,noreproductionofanypartmaytake
placewithoutthewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress&Assessment.
Firstpublished2023
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
NAMES:Boas,TaylorC.,author.
TITLE:EvangelicalsandelectoralpoliticsinLatinAmerica:akingdomof
thisworld/TaylorC.Boas,BostonUniversity.
DESCRIPTION:FirstEdition.|NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,2023.
|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
IDENTIFIERS:LCCN2022031567|ISBN9781009275071(Hardback)|
ISBN9781009275088(eBook)
SUBJECTS:LCSH:Evangelicalism–Politicalaspects–LatinAmerica.|
Religiousright–LatinAmerica.|LatinAmerica–Politicsand
government–21stcentury.|Christianityandpolitics–LatinAmerica.
CLASSIFICATION:LCCBR1642.L29B632023|
DDC280/.4098–dc23/eng/20221115
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022031567
ISBN978-1-009-27507-1Hardback
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oraccuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhis
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Published online by Cambridge University Press
To Robert and Suzanne Boas
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Contents
ListofFigures pagexi
ListofTables xiii
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xix
1 ExplainingEvangelicalRepresentation 1
2 VotingBehaviorandPoliticalInstitutions 51
3 Growth,Diversity,andPoliticalTheology 84
4 ThreatsandPoliticalEngagementinBrazil 112
5 ComfortandPoliticalQuiescenceinChile 149
6 CleavagesandPoliticalAmbivalenceinPeru 182
7 ConclusionsandComparativePerspectives 217
AppendixA DataSources 251
References 267
Index 307
ix
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press