Community Authoritarianism and Elite Decision-making

• In Event: New Political Science & Religion and Politics Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual Poster Session: Religion and Politics Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

How does the religious upbringing structure elite decision-making? Using the characteristics tapped in the Child Rearing Authoritarianism (CRA) Index, I develop a set of decision rules to categorize religious doctrines' support for authoritarian social norms, and construct a novel dataset of these doctrinal authoritarianism scores by coding primary sources. I use biographical sources and Pew data to assign childhood social environment scores to the 113th-116th US Congresses, showing that those raised in environments with authoritarian community social norms support more hawkish foreign policy and are less likely to support social safety nets.

Author

• Anthony Stowers, Florida State University