Political science, religion and development: a literature review

Abstract

This review provides an overview of important literature on the relationship between religion, politics and development, from the point of view of the political science academic literature. There has, in recent years, been a vigorous interest in political science in examining the relationship between politics and religion. Surprisingly, perhaps, very little of the current output is focused on developing countries, with attention instead being concentrated on religion and politics in more strategically salient regions - such as the Middle East. This review, however, reflects a more recent trend within development studies to redress this gap. Because the explicitly relevant literature in political science is so scant, we have chosen to pull out threads from within other areas in the discipline. For this purpose, we have provided an overview of literature on democratisation, good governance, human rights, social capital, conflict and drivers of change.