Secularization and Political Radicalism

The Consequences of Secularization

Recent years have seen the rise of populist parties in much of the Western world. At the same time, this part of the world is also increasingly secular. This project aims to investigate the potentially causal relationship between secularization and populism. We investigate the relationship between secularism and radical voting at the municipality level, using data on religious affiliation and religious attendance. To identify the causal impact of secularization on the radical vote share, we use geographical variation in secularism induced by plausibly exogenous introduction of cable television from 1965 to about 1990 in the Netherlands.

• Preliminary work. No draft available yet.