A comparative study of the relationship between government regulation of religion and religiosity in Islamic societies

علوم اجتماعی دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript, Available Online from 01 January 2025   

Document Type: Scientific-Research

DOI: 10.22067/social.2025.85730.1461

Author

Mohammad Reza Taleban^*

Research Institute of Imam Khomeini and Islamic Revolution

Abstract

The relationship between the government regulation of religion and religiosity has been one of the important axes of the conflict between the two paradigms governing the sociology of religion, i.e. secularization and the Economics/Market of religion in the last few decades. The arguments of sociologists under the paradigm of secularization led to the conclusion of the hypothesis that government regulation of religion has a positive correlation with religiosity. On the other hand, the new paradigm Economics/Market of religion made arguments to prove the hypothesis that government regulation of religion has a negative correlation with religiosity. In the present research article, the mechanisms between the two variables of government regulation of religion and religiosity were explained from the perspective of the two paradigms of secularization and the Economics/Market of religion, and then, their conflicting hypotheses was empirically investigated with secondary data related to Islamic countries through cross-country analysis with the country analysis unit in a period of 15 years. The findings of this research mainly indicated the empirical confirmation of the hypothesis derived from the theoretical approach of secularization that there is a positive relationship between government regulation of religion and people's religiosity. At the same time, the results of the present research could not get serious empirical support for the hypothesis of the theoretical approach of Economics/Market of religion based on the negative relationship between government regulation of religion and people's religiosity.

Keywords

Government regulation of religion; religiosity; paradigm of secularization; Economics/Market of religion paradigm; Islamic countries

References