The Institutional Foundations of Religious Freedom
37 Pages Posted: 12 May 2021
Date Written: October 2020
Abstract
How did religious freedom emerge? I address this question by building on the framework of Johnson and Koyama (2019). First, I establish that premodern societies, reliant on identity rules, were incapable of liberalism and religious freedom. Identity rules and restrictions on religious freedom were part of a political economy equilibrium that ensured social order. Second, I examine developments like the Reformation and the Industrial Revolution, as shocks to this premodern identity rules and conditional toleration equilibrium. Finally, I consider several examples that support the claim that the move from identity rules to general rules allowed religious freedom to flourish.
Keywords: Institutions, Economics of Religion, Rule of Law
JEL Classification: N0, N4, N43, Z1
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