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The religious-political regime in Europe are currently under considerable pressure to adapt. As a result, found substantial discussion held as to whether the European democracies hold in view of the challenges placed on them to the diversity of its traditional arrangements religious regulation or not increasingly converge on a common European model of regulatory dealing with religious pluralism. The aim of this paper is to shed some empirical light on the debate about the religious and political dynamics in Europe, by occupying a broader and mainly quantitative-comparative perspective. To this end, makes the empirical analysis of a re-encoded data for a total of 31 European democracies (the EU27 member states plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey) use, which the hitherto existing data of the second wave of the religion and the State Project (RAS2) expanded and thus a test period of two annuality tithe creates (1990-2011). The empirical results suggest that there is currently no evidence of a convergence of religious regulation in Europe. On the contrary, the empirical evidence shows not only the persistence of significant national differences, but also an increasing divergence in the state regulation of religious sector. This applies to the treatment of religious minority groups as well as for the rest Ringier end or demanding treatment of religious organizations in general. Adapted from the source document.

We respond to the critique of our article (Ackermann and Traunmuller 2014) and argue that theories of the declining importance of social-structural characteristics for voting behavior are misguided. Instead we are interested in the more substantial question of how and under what conditions they become politically salient. This theoretical perspective opens up the view for regional and temporal variation in social influence processes that is at odds with traditional views of cleavage-voting. We support our argument by demonstrating that social contexts are more important for individual voting behavior today than decades ago. We conclude by discussing several implications for the study of social context effects on political behavior. Adapted from the source document.

Scholars have recently stressed two important avenues for the study of cultural diversity and social capital: the role of political integration regimes as well as alternative indicators to generalised trust. This article addresses both. Focusing on Germany, it provides the first study of the relationship between cultural diversity and social capital in a country implementing an 'assimilationist' model of integration. As a further innovation, the article contrasts social trust with an alternative, yet often neglected form of social capital, namely norms of reciprocity. Results based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and using multi-level analyses of 97 German regions suggest a negative relationship between cultural diversity and social trust in Germany. Assimilationist policies have not (yet) led to efficient integration of minority groups and a value convergence that could bridge cultural divides. Nevertheless, cultural diversity does not erode the commitment to norms of reciprocity, which may therefore be regarded as an alternative foundation of social cohesion in culturally diverse societies. Adapted from the source document.

This article investigates the moderating effect of social context on the relationship between religion and vote choice. Whereas theories of electoral research and the sociology of religion assume a linear contextual effect, we develop a new theoretical argument that predicts a non-linear effect. The results of logistic multilevel analyses confirm this theory for the Catholic milieu: The effect of catholic denomination on voting for the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) first increases with the share of Catholics in the context and decreases when they are in the clear majority. This finding - which contradicts former studies - holds for all federal elections under consideration (1994-2009), withstands several robustness tests and provides important evidence for the perpetuation of the traditional Catholic voting norm through group processes. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractWhile the literature on trust has produced various conceptual models, there is also some confusion concerning different types of trust and their formation. In this article, three contested points are empirically clarified. First, are there really different forms of trust as much of the literature suggests? Second, if so, then how are these different types of trust related to each other? Third, what are the foundations of these different forms of trust? Relying on data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel, it is concluded that two types of trust can be empirically identified: an intimate trust in people close to the truster, as well as an abstract trust in people in general. Although these types of trust constitute separate dimensions, they are positively related to each other. Furthermore, this article challenges the widely held assumption that experiences are most relevant for particularised trust, while generalised trust is based on psychological predispositions. It is argued instead for a sphere‐specific logic of trust formation: It is the radius of experiences and predispositions that matters for the radius of trust. Finally, the analysis goes beyond the existing research by highlighting hitherto unknown conditions under which trust in familiar domains is more or less likely to extend to generalised trust.

According to the theory of Alexis de Tocqueville, associational life within civil societies is considered to be of essential importance for the generation of interpersonal trust. In this article, we take a closer look at the relationship between associational membership & generalized trust. We present an empirical analysis focusing on Switzerland & encompassing participation in different types of associations (bridging vs. bonding & isolated vs. connected associations) as well as multiple participation irrespective of the type of association. Empirical analyses on the basis of data obtained by means of the Schweizer Freiwilligen-Monitor of 2007 lead us to the conclusion that in contrast to widely-held beliefs the generation of trust in Switzerland does not so much depend on membership in specific associations but rather on the personal willingness to integrate. This means that social trust is built for the most part depending on the quantity of personal voluntary engagement, & scarcely depends on the quality of the associations joined. Adapted from the source document.