Stop suffering! economic downturns and pentecostal upsurge

Economic distress and impoverishment have been generally associated with the rise of religiosity and religious fundamentalism in several contexts, even within developed countries.1 Expectations that religiosity would fade away in increasingly modern societies have given way to a renewed recognition of the influence of religion on the world’s social and political landscape. As shown by Inglehart and Norris (2004), the world has more people with traditional religious views than ever before, particularly in impoverished contexts. The growth of ethno-religious conflicts and of fundamentalist movements in Muslim and Christian communities are some of the most prominent indicators of the vitality of religions in the world today.This paper estimates the effects of economic downturns on the expansion of Pentecostal Evangelicalism in Brazil. We find that regions more exposed to economic distress experienced a persistent rise both in Pentecostal affiliation and in the vote share of candidates connected to Pentecostal churches in national legislative elections. Once elected, these politicians carried out an agenda with greater emphasis on issues that are sensitive to fundamental religious principles. These results uncover a direct link between economic distress and a sustained entrenchment of more fundamentalist religious groups in a contemporary democracy