Why is the West unique in linking religiosity to market friendliness?

Abstract

The Integrated Values Survey shows that the positive relationship between religiosity and market friendliness is a uniquely Western feature. With the help of public choice theory, the author hypothesises that this Western uniqueness is the result of the way the dimensions of political ideologies are formed in the West. The hypothesis is supported by regressing an index of market friendliness on a religiosity index, political identity, and a measure of ‘ideological capital’. Accounting for the latter two, the positive association of religiosity with market friendliness vanishes, even in the West.