Religion in South-Caucasus: encouraging or inhibiting pro-democratic attitudes?

Abstract

The relationship between religion/religiosity and democratic values is a hot topic for the discipline. On the one side, the 'secularist' school sees religion as inherently in tension with democratic attitudes (due to its dogmatism and closure) and argues that intense religiosity might pose an obstacle to the diffusion of democratic values. On the other side, many scholars have challenged these beliefs and empirically shown that religion does not imply lower support for democracy. This paper test different hypotheses drawn from the literature, by comparing the influence of religiosity on political attitudes in Georgia and Azerbaijan. The comparison allows sketching a more composite picture and suggests that religion might play diverse roles in different contexts. This leaves the scenario open for further researches and for original interpretations.