No Religion, No (Political) Values? Political Attitudes of Atheists in Comparison

Abstract

On the basis of survey data for Switzerland, this study systematically compares the political attitudes of atheists with the ones of theists. As expected theoretically, there are indeed statistically significant differences in the attitudinal structures of these two groups. Atheists are more to the political left than theists, they have a higher degree of interest in politics, but less trust in established institutions. These results lead to two conclusions. First, the author pleads for a more systematic integration of the religious cleavage into the analyses of politics. Second, he maintains that key political and societal institutions have to adapt their strategies in order to include atheists.