The Decline of Religious Voting in Italy in the 'First Republic' (1953-1992)
Year: 2011
Type: preprint
Abstract: When studying religion and politics, Italy is of particular relevance because of the centrality of the Catholic religion in the Italian society and politics, and the domination of the religious party - the Christian Democracy (Democrazia Cristiana – DC) in the country’s party system until 1992. In this paper we analyze the impact on the vote for the Italian religious party - the DC - the pivotal party in the so-called “First Republic” (1948-1992) employing a series of indicators of societal and religious change over the entire period. In particular we examine the effects of modernization and secularization as well as of Church organization stemming from Church’s Vatican II reforms. The analysis’s uniqueness rests on the exceptional detailed and historical data for the Italian comune (N= 6,14'7 across this time period and the use of advanced quantitative techniques. The analysis confirms the traditional interpretation of secularization in affecting the DC voting decline, but also stresses effects of the failure of the Church’s reforms of Vatican II. This result is further confirmed by an analysis by geopolitical regions: the stronghold of Catholicism and DC vote - the Northeast area – once modernization took hold, experienced the fastest and more dramatic decline.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Authors: E. Spencer Wellhofer, Piero Ignazi
Institutions: University of Denver, University of Bologna
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2111756753