Religiosity as a public good.
Public Goods can be seen as one important way in which societies sustain themselves over time. These are part of the puzzle of the development of political order. Public goods like the rule of law are non-substractable and non-excludable . For economists the classic textbook examples are national defense and police protection. In this paper I argue that religiosity can function like police protection, a means of sustaining order through fear of punishment from a transcendent source. As a means of reducing defection from social norms it has a role to play as a public good. But religion cannot at the same time be seen as the source of such norms or dissention will undermine the very order that punishment seems to reinforce.
Sherlock
Richard
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Department of Languages, Philosophy, and Speech Communication, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA. Richard.sherlock@usu.edu
D006801:Humans; D012067:Religion; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D012945:Social Values