 J. Samuel Valenzuela, Timothy R. Scully, and Nicolás Somma, The Enduring Presence of Religion in Chilean Ideological Positionings and Voter Options Pinochet's dictatorship is widely believed to have changed Chilean politics by creating a new authoritarian/democratic political cleavage that reorganized the party system and voter alignments. However, religious and class differences have not lost their salience in determining political attitudes in Chile. An original survey focusing primarily on religion shows that religion continues to mold political views along three polarities: irreligion versus religiosity, Catholicism versus Protestantism, and progressive versus traditional forms of religiosity. The irreligious, Protestants, and religiously progressive Catholics place themselves more to the left and are more supportive of the Concertation coalition. Class differences also remain important. |