The Rise of Evangelical Political Organizations in Latin America: Brazil and Mexico

• In Event: 2218 - Public Religions in Comparative-Historical Perspective

Abstract

In the preceding decade, political organizations of different evangelical denominations have emerged as a veritable force in Latin America. Whether forming openly evangelical parties, or encouraging individual pastors to use their church’s organizational infrastructure to run from within non-exclusively religious parties, whether as formal evangelical social movement organizations seeking to take over existing party apparatuses, or assemblies and confederation of Christian churches creating alliances with parties during certain elections, the increased efforts to secure state power are clear. What explains this rise? In this paper we develop the question and indicate its scientific and political stakes; and we also begin to formulate an answer to the question through a preliminary comparative analysis of the fortunes of evangelical political organizations in Mexico, where the phenomenon is a fledgling one, and Brazil, where evangelical organizations have been a powerful political force on the national scene for years.

Authors

• Graham Wilson Hill, University of Bern

• Edwin F. Ackerman, Syracuse University