Religion and Ideology

Abstract

This chapter examines the over-time relationship between religion and political ideology in Britain. Public debate and party-political contestation over socio-economic issues ‘are at the core of contemporary European politics’ (Davis and Robinson 1999: 1633). The chapter focuses mainly on three core dimensions of ideology, which can be said to be highly relevant for public attitudes and party contestation in post-war British politics. These are the left-right (or socialist-laissez-faire) axis, related to the class structure traditionally underpinning British party politics (Sanders 1999; Heath et al. 1996), welfare ideology, and the libertarian-authoritarian axis, which might be said to cover broadly non-economic issues. The case for examining the rela-tionship between religion and political ideology on socio-economic issues is clear, as Wilson observes:

… there is perhaps no command more universally normative in the world’s great religious traditions than the imperative of charity towards the poor. Thus, it would seem natural to assume a powerful nexus between religious belief and economic policy issues (2009: 191).