New Research Director – Public Religion Research Institute

Dear Fellow Section Members,

Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in Washington DC is seeking a new research director to lead its team of 5-6 operating at the cutting edge of current religion and politics and public affairs. They are looking for someone with a PhD and experience in the field managing multiple projects and a team. This is a fantastic opportunity to be in the public affairs mix with significant exposure. Please see the link below to read the description and learn how to apply. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me at djupe@denison.edu.

https://www.prri.org/research-director/

If you don’t know them, please check out their outstanding work at http://prri.org where they also provide access to their data for researchers ready to download and analyze.

Best Regards,

Paul Djupe

Denison University Political Science

Weber Best Conference Paper Award – 2019

Weber Best Conference Paper Award – 2019

The Best Paper Award recognizes the best paper dealing with religion and politics presented at the previous year’s APSA Annual Meeting. The paper should address a timely and relevant topic, within the discipline and beyond, in a theoretically innovative and methodologically thorough manner. Please submit nominations to the chair of the committee.

Deadline for nominations: April 15, 2019

Award Committee

Andre Audette (chair)
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Monmouth College
aaudette@monmouthcollege.edu

Amanda Friesen
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
amfriese@iupui.edu

Kerem Ozan Kalkan
Assistant Professor
Department of Government
Eastern Kentucky University
kerem.kalkan@eku.edu

Rachel Beatty Riedl
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Northwestern University
r-riedl@northwestern.edu

Journal of Church & State – call for papers

Posted by Matt Scherer, Section Chair, on APSA Connect:

Journal of Church and State is pleased to announce a call for papers on the following topic:

“Catholic Clerical Sexual Abuse”

The continuing Catholic sexual abuse tragedy has escalated from an acute religious crisis to a chronic, global, political one. It continues to be fueled by increasing national, civil investigations; the lack of credible Vatican responses to protect children, and the need to provide justice for the victims. The balance of power between the Catholic Church and many national states has changed significantly due to the increasing revelations of clerical sexual abuse. Authors are invited to submit manuscripts for consideration for a special issue of Journal of Church and State.

Papers are invited from scholars to articulate, examine and analyze the new relationships as well as the negative or positive consequences for both the Catholic Church and civil states. Papers will be expected to use government and church documents to support arguments. These arguments include, but are not limited to:

  • The growth of the scope and nature of civil/criminal investigations into Catholic clerical sexual abuse
  • The right or overreach of the State to examine clerical personnel records
  • State monitoring of the management of clergy
  • The compelling state interest to protect children
  • New interpretations of notions of “separation of Church and State” and constitutional protections of religious freedom
  • State attempts to eradicate religious exemptions and privileges
  • Challenges to the financial position and disposition of Church funds in bankruptcy proceedings
  • Changes in Church supported educational, health, and social policies

The special issue will be edited by Dr Jo Renne Formicola (Professor of Political Science, Department of Political Science and Public Affairs, Seton Hall University – profile page).

Proposals should be emailed to jorenee.formicola@shu.edu by February 1, 2019.

Submissions should adhere to the journal’s Author Instructions for original research articles. Please indicate in a cover letter that the submission is in response to the Call for Papers and reference the title of the call. All manuscripts submitted in response to the call will undergo expedited, full peer review.

The final deadline for papers will be June 1, 2019.

PandR Journal – Is Islam Compatible with Free-Market Capitalism? An Empirical Analysis, 1970–2010

Indra de Soysa
https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755048318000780
Published online: 19 December 2018

Abstract

Are majority-Muslim countries laggards when it comes to developing liberal economic institutions? Using an Index of Economic Freedom and its component parts, this study finds that Muslim-dominant countries (>50% of the population) are positively associated with free-market capitalism. Protestant dominance is also positively correlated, but the association stems from just two components of the index, mainly “legal security and property rights protection.” Surprisingly, Protestant countries correlate negatively with “small government” and “freedom to trade,” two critical components of free-market capitalism. Muslim dominance shows positive correlations with all areas except for “legal security and property rights.” The results are consistent when assessing similar variables measuring property rights and government ownership of the economy collected by the Varieties of Democracy Project. Capitalistic policies and institutions, it seems, may travel across religions more easily than culturalists claim.