A comparison of social and economic political attitudes of Canadian and American Evangelical Protestants

The objective of this thesis is to explore social and economic attitudes exhibited by Canadian and American Evangelical Protestants by employing quantitative analysis. The 2004 CES and the 2004 ANES datasets are employed. According to the literature review, Canadian and American Evangelicals share similar commitments to social conservatism but differ on economic conservatism. American Evangelicals tend to be more economically conservative than other Americans but Canadian Evangelicals do not differ significantly from other Canadians. Important religious and political concepts are defined, including Evangelical Protestantism, social attitudes and economic attitudes. Independent variables are represented by Evangelical Protestantism, other religions and socio-demographic characteristics. Social and economic attitudes represent dependent variables. Denomination and belief in Biblical literalism are employed to design Evangelical and mainline Protestant variables. Social attitudes are represented by attitudes on abortion, same-sex marriage and traditional gender roles. Economic attitudes are represented by attitudes on welfare, affirmative action and income inequality. The quantitative analysis employs cross-tabulation and multivariate regression to obtain the results. The results are consistent with prior literature. Evangelicals, regardless of national and socio-demographic differences, tend to exhibit socially conservative attitudes due to a strong linkage between religion and moral traditionalism. By contrast, economic attitudes have less religious salience with Evangelicals and differences in nationality and socio-demographic factors have more relevance.