The future of civilization and state religion policy

This study examines the influence of civilization, as defined by Samuel Huntington, on state religion policy between 1990 and 2002 based on the religion and state (RAS) dataset. While most previous studies of Huntington's civilizational arguments focus on his predictions regarding conflict, and tend to falsify these predictions, the findings show that there is a clear link between civilization and state religion policy. Overall, state involvement in religion increased between 1990 and 2002 but the pattern of change differed between civilizations with each civilization having its own unique pattern. This is true of both the absolute levels of government involvement in religion and the patterns of change.