Godless Democrats and Pious Republicans?
Party Activists, Party Capture, and the 'God Gap'

This book argues that basic demographic forces are essential to understanding the rise of Evangelical Republicans and Secular Democrats.

Ryan L. Claassen (Author)

9781107459267, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 June 2015

208 pages, 16 b/w illus. 33 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.2 cm, 0.3 kg

'Godless Democrats and Pious Republicans? is an important book that deserves to be read closely by scholars of religion and politics, parties, and voting behavior.' Stephen T. Mockabee, Politics and Religion

Do Evangelical activists control the Republican Party? Do secular activists control the Democratic Party? In Godless Democrats and Pious Republicans?, Ryan Claassen carefully assesses the way campaign activists represent religious and non-religious groups in American political parties dating back to the 1960s. By providing a new theoretical framework for investigating the connections between macro social and political trends, the results challenge a conventional wisdom in which recently mobilized religious and Secular extremists captured the parties and created a God gap. The new approach reveals that very basic social and demographic trends matter far more than previously recognized and that mobilization matters far less. The God gap in voting is real, but it was not created by Christian Right mobilization efforts and a Secular backlash. Where others see culture wars and captured parties, Claassen finds many religious divisions in American politics are artifacts of basic social changes. This very basic insight leads to many profoundly different conclusions about the motivations of religious and non-religious activists and voters.

Introduction
1. The religious divide in American politics
2. Mobilization, capture, and misunderstood trends
3. Representation and four forces that shape change among activists
4. First force, the effect of being fruitful and multiplying
5. Second force, the effect of voting early and often
6. Third force, the effect of picking a side
7. Fourth force, the effect of writing checks and knocking on doors
8. 'Capture' revisited, representation, and religious activists
9. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]