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ECONOMIC GROWTH AND THE SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: THE FRENCH CASE
Author(s) -
FRANCK RAPHAËL
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
economic inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.823
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1465-7295
pISSN - 0095-2583
DOI - 10.1111/j.1465-7295.2008.00194.x
Subject(s) - secularization , parliament , economics , religiosity , industrialisation , state (computer science) , political economy , literacy , keynesian economics , neoclassical economics , development economics , political science , law , politics , economic growth , market economy , algorithm , computer science
This article provides a test of the secularization hypothesis, which argues that economic growth, industrialization, increased literacy, and low fertility decrease religiosity. It focuses on the elections of the secular politicians who voted in favor of the separation between Church and State in the French Parliament in 1905. If the secularization hypothesis is correct, these secular politicians should have been elected in the most developed areas of France at the turn of the twentieth century. Contrary to the predictions of the secularization hypothesis, we find that the support for secular politicians originated in the rural areas of France. ( JEL Z12, D72, N43)