The protestant ethic and the spirit of democracy: what is the democratic effect of Calvinism?

Abstract

Purpose

The paper considers whether and how Calvinism as a specific type of religion, ideology, and social system impacts political democracy in modern society. In contrast to the previous sociological and related literature assuming only a positive or negative linear effect, the paper proposes that Calvinism exerts mixed positive-negative and non-linear effects on democracy. The purpose of this paper is to aim at making a contribution to the sociological theory and research on Calvinism and democracy and modern society in general.

Design/methodology/approach

A combination of comparative and historical sociological methodology.

Findings

The main proposition and finding is that whether Calvinism is likely to have a positive or negative impact on democracy is the function of its specific position within social structure and its concrete phase of development. Thus, different positions of Calvinism in social structure are linked to its differential consequences in aggregate for democracy, and various stages of its development to time-variable non-linear effects in sequence.

Originality/value

This is a relatively novel finding innovating and expanding on the literature's assumption that Calvinism has a structurally uniform, either positive or negative, and linear, time-constant effect on democracy.

Citation

Zafirovski, M. (2014), "The protestant ethic and the spirit of democracy: what is the democratic effect of Calvinism?", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 34 No. 9/10, pp. 634-653. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-05-2013-0055