Religion, Redistribution and Regimes in Asia and Africa, 2005–2022

Religiosity plays an important role in Asia and Africa and accounts for political-economic preferences and beliefs. I trace the influence of collective religiosity on the redistribution and democracy preferences of respondents among 35 industrialising societies in Asia and Africa in the period 2005–2022. Religious attendees support redistribution less than their non-religious counterparts and believers who do not participate in collective religiosity. Relative social position (income end education), a substitution effect and being part of a majority explain the reluctance to support redistribution. Religious attendees also more readily identify with authoritarian rather than liberal interpretations of the meaning of democracy.