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Movement Commitment among Progressive and Conservative Religio-Political Activists in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2016

Laura R. Olson
Laura R. Olson*
Affiliation:
Clemson University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Laura R. Olson, Department of Political Science, Clemson University, 232 Brackett Hall, Clemson, SC 29634. E-mail: laurao@clenson.edu
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Abstract

In this article, I compare progressive and conservative religio-political activists' commitment to their movements (the religious left and right, respectively). I rely on data from the Public Religion Research Institute's 2009 surveys of individuals they identified as religious left activists and religious right activists. Do these activists actually say they identify with the movement with which pollsters assume them to affiliate? How potentially influential do they perceive their movements to be? Third, to what extent do activists support their movement's core social movement organizations? I conclude by arguing that the evidence is mixed that the American religious left lacks influence because its activists tend not to be unified.

Type
Symposium: The Politics of Religious Alliances
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 2016 , pp. 296 - 308
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2016 

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