Part III | Expanded Analysis
Category G | Extrinsic Benefits
Topic 36 | Bundle of associated social goods
Social scientists have observed that a “bundled commodity” of closely associated rights and liberties, which includes the right to religious freedom, correlate with a bundle of social goods. These include security, gender equality, innovation, education, health, and the development and persistence of democracy.979
Bundled rights and bundled social goods
Sociologists Brian J. Grim and Roger Finke have described the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) as part of a “bundled commodity” of fundamental rights, including rights to freedom of speech/expression, press, and assembly.980 This bundle includes other associated economic, civil, and political liberties as well.981 Because of the close association between these rights and liberties, the restriction or upholding of one has been shown to affect others.982
Studies show that the presence of this bundled commodity correlates with a bundle of benefits, or “social goods,” that contribute to the well-being of people in that society.983 While these correlations are striking, researchers have noted that “correlation does not imply causation, and further scholarship is needed to show the paths through which these phenomena are related.”984 The discussion below highlights just some of the social goods associated with the bundled commodity of rights and liberties that includes the right to FoRB.
Civil and political liberties
The right to religious freedom is associated with other civil and political and rights and liberties, which protect individuals from government infringement and ensure their ability to participate in society.985
The idea that individuals who hold different beliefs should be tolerated within society, and be permitted to create institutions that allow them to gather and worship freely, contributes to a democratic environment and a variety of associated social goods.986 For example, religious freedom is associated with fostering security even in diversity.987 As a trio of law and religion scholars explains, “religious communities are most likely to support democracy and least likely to take up the gun or form dictatorships, when governments allow them freedom to worship, practice, and express their faith freely and when religious communities in turn renounce their claims to permanent offices or positions of policy-making authority.”988
This idea, that religious freedom helps promote democratic principles and practices, is reflected in research showing a marked correlation between religious freedom, its associated rights/liberties, and the longevity of democracy.989 Relatedly, religious freedom is associated with lower levels of corruption in a country.990 And since religious freedom has historically spread to neighboring countries, it is associated with facilitating the spread of democratic values as well.991
Perhaps surprising to some, who regard nondiscrimination rights and rights to religious freedom as antithetical, religious freedom also correlates with some nondiscrimination norms. Law and religion scholar Elizabeth A. Clark notes that “[d]espite some very real tensions between nondiscrimination rights and religious freedom, . . . the average level of support for LGBT rights is thirty-eight percent higher in countries with higher levels of religious freedom than in countries with low levels of religious freedom.”992
Social and economic liberties
The right to religious freedom is also associated with social and economic rights and liberties, which allow people to access the resources and services they need to live with dignity.993 This creates a cycle that enhances civil and political right as well: Social and economic rights facilitate access to social goods that reinforce civil and political rights associated with democracy. Democracy can then further develop and sustain civil and political rights— perpetuating a virtuous cycle.
Historical research has shown religious freedom to have contributed to the post-Enlightenment modernization of several countries, opening the door for social goods associated with social and economic rights.994 One study explored religious freedom’s effect on several countries that had admitted/allowed proselytizing Protestant missionaries in the twentieth century. These countries experienced development in mass education, newspapers, mass printing, voluntary organizations, colonial reform, and other improvements (including nonviolent protest tactics and effective formation of political parties, related to civil and political rights).995 Such social and economic developments make democracy more likely. Indeed, the study showed that Protestant missions, facilitated by religious freedom, had a significant effect “on democracy in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.”996
Democracy, in turn, can encourage innovation that promotes social and economic rights.997 Some scholars suggest that religious freedom may contribute to innovation and technology because these fields are largely stimulated by peoples’ ability to act freely without reprisal.998
Relatedly, scholars suggest that religious freedom attracts entrepreneurs who promote economic growth.999 For example, in the earliest days of the New York colony (New Netherland), the Dutch West India Company controlled the region and issued an order to respect various religions in order to encourage trade, immigration, and economic fortune.1000 To date, New York City remains an economic hub, producing the highest GDP of all cities in the United States and also housing the largest immigrant population.1001 Religious liberties in this city’s earliest days likely contributed to its success, permitting entrepreneurial refugees— including a large Jewish population—to contribute to the economy.1002
Religious liberty also correlates with greater levels of economic freedom in terms of property rights.1003
Generally, religious freedom is associated with higher levels of income and human development in countries.1004 When combined with academic freedom, religious freedom has an even greater effect and may raise the Human Development Index of a country even more.1005
Religious freedom is also positively associated with ten out of twelve pillars of global competitiveness from the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index.1006 These ten positively associated measures include primary education and health, technical training and higher education, technological readiness, innovation, communications and transport infrastructure, market efficiency, goods, business sophistication, financial market development, institutional environment promoting wealth, and labor market efficiency.1007 The consistently demonstrated association between religious freedom and economic prosperity has led some researchers to suggest that it is in a nation’s long-term interest to expand not only economic freedom but religious freedom as well.1008
Additional studies show an association between religious freedom and other indicators of human flourishing. For example, where there is religious freedom, members of society may carry out religious practices that are associated with higher levels of well-being, life satisfaction, lower criminal activity, and improved educational attainment.1009
Women and girls
Unchecked religious forces have at times repressed women, contributing to a historically complex relationship between religious freedom and women’s rights. Even so, the “view of religious freedom and women’s rights being in eternal and inevitable conflict is a simplistic one.”1010
In fact, religious freedom correlates positively with higher educational and economic statuses of women.1011 The idea is that, because religious freedom facilitates pluralistic thought and belief, and requires that they exist in the same space, it helps maintain the necessary framework for people to advocate for civil rights, including gender equality in society.1012 One human rights expert explains that, where truly upheld, religious freedom “gives women the same right as men to think freely, to make their own choices regarding religion or belief, and to practice those choices without fear of being discriminated against, harassed, or punished— even if they break with social and religious norms.”1013
Professor Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom has noted that religious freedom in the sense of “religion-free” government (i.e., government not aligned with a majority or state religion) is “more likely to advance women’s rights.”1014 Therefore, state regulation aimed at loosening a majority religion’s “grip on political institutions” can “encourage legal recognition of women’s rights” and increase gender equality.1015 Conversely, legislation aimed at controlling religious minorities (and, thus, diminishing religious freedom) has an adverse effect on gender equality.1016
Today, advocates for religious freedom and women’s rights share and advocate for many of the same concerns related to women’s and girls’ rights, including “honor killings, forced conversion, unjust child custody arrangements, female genital mutilation,” and other violations of fundamental human rights and liberties.1017 Religious freedom, and its associated rights and liberties, provide them the social space to do so.
Conclusion
Research clearly shows a correlation between the bundled commodity of rights and liberties that includes the right to religious freedom and a variety of social goods, though more research must be done to understand their exact relationship. Those discussed above are just a sampling of positive social goods that are understood to accompany robust protections of the right to freedom of religion or belief.
References
979. Toolkit Topic 36 (Bundle of associated social goods) was drafted principally by Chloe Atkins, 2023 ICLRS Summer Fellow.
980. BRIAN J. GRIM & ROGER FINKE, THE PRICE OF FREEDOM DENIED: RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION AND CONFLICT IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 205–06 (2011).
981. Id. Generally, fundamental human rights are considered to be inherent and universal, as articulated in international human rights instruments, while liberties are those freedoms and rights recognized by law in a given country.
982. Id.
983. Id.
984. ANI SARKISSIAN, THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION: WHY GOVERNMENTS RESTRICT RELIGION 6 (2014); GRIM & FINKE, supra, at 206.
985. See, e.g., International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 999 U.N.T.S. 171 (16 Dec. 1966). The United States has signed and ratified (i.e., is a party to) the ICCPR.
986. Anthony Gill & John M. Owen IV, Religious Liberty and Economic Prosperity: Four Lessons from the Past, 37(1) CATO JOURNAL 115, 119–23 (2017), https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2017/2/cj-v37n1-9.pdf; GRIM & FINKE, supra, at 206–07 (showing correlation between religious freedom and “lower levels of armed conflict” and “longetivity of democracy”).
987. Gill & Owen, supra, at 119.
988. MONICA DUFFY TOFT, DANIEL PHILPOTT & TIMOTHY SAMUEL SHAH, GOD'S CENTURY: RESURGENT RELIGION IN GLOBAL POLITICS 217 (2011); see also GRIM & ROGER FINKE, supra, at 21; Elizabeth A. Clark, The Impact of Religion and Religious Organizations, 49(1) BYU LAW REVIEW 1, 38–40 (2023), https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3463&context=lawreview.
989. GRIM & FINKE, supra, at 206–07.
990. Christos Andreas Makridis, Human Flourishing and Religious Liberty: Evidence from over 150 Countries, 15 PLOS ONE, Oct. 1, 2020, at 11, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239983.
991. See Gill & Owen, supra, at 128; Robert D. Woodberry, The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy, 106(2) AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW 244 (2012), https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055412000093.
992. Clark, supra, at 41 (citing Brian J. Grim, New Global Study, Do Religious Freedom and LGBT Rights Have Common Ground?, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM & BUSINESS FOUNDATION (Aug. 17, 2019), https://religiousfreedomandbusiness.org/2/post/2019/08/new-global-study-do-religious-freedom-and-lgbt-rights-have-common-ground.html).
993. See, e.g., International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), Dec. 16, 1966, 993 U.N.T.S. 3. The United States has signed but not ratified the ICESCR.
994. See generally Woodberry, supra.
995. Id. at 244–45.
996. Id. at 245.
997. Id. at 259.
998. Brian J. Grim, Greg Clark & Robert Edward Snyder, Is Religious Freedom Good for Business? A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis, 10 INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON RELIGION 1, 10 (2014).
999. Gill & Owen, supra, at 117–18.
1000. Id. at 124.
1001. News Release, Gross Domestic Product by County and Metropolitan Area, 2023, BUREAU OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS (Dec. 4, 2024), https://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/lagdp1224.pdf; U.S. Immigrant Population by Metropolitan Area, MIGRATION POLICY INSTITUTE (Mar. 7, 2023), https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/us-immigrant-population-metropolitan-area.
1002. Tanisia Morris, Tracing the History of Jewish Immigrants and Their Impact on New York City, FORDHAM NEWS (Dec. 12, 2017), https://news.fordham.edu/inside-fordham/faculty-reads/tracing-history-jewish-immigrants-impact-new-york-city.
1003. Makridis, supra, at 11.
1004. GRIM & FINKE, supra, at 207. The Human Development Index measures a country’s average levels of health, education, and standard of living.
1005. Khatib Ahmad Khan, Danabekova Aigerim & Yansheng Wu, Do Countries Need Religious and Educational Freedoms to Achieve Prosperity?, 14 RELIGIONS 2 (Jan. 1 2023).
1006. Grim, Clark & Snyder, supra, at 8.
1007. Id. at 9.
1008. See, e.g., Alon & Gregory Chase, Religious Freedom and Economic Prosperity, 25(2) CATO JOURNAL 399, 405 (2005).
1009. See, e.g., Makridis, supra, at 1; Christopher G. Ellison, Religious Involvement and Subjective Well-Being, 3 JOURNAL OF HEALTH & SOCIAL BEHAVIOR 80 (1991); Jonathan Gruber & Daniel M. Hungerman, The Church vs. the Mall: What Happens When Religion Faces Increased Secular Competition, 123(2) QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS 831 (2008); Edward L. Glaeser & Bruce I. Sacerdote, Education and Religion, 2 JOURNAL OF HUMAN CAPITAL 188 (2008).
1010. Clark, supra, at 41 (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Carolyn Evans, Anna Hood & Jessica Moir, From Local to Global and Back Again: Religious Freedom and Women’s Rights, 25 LAW IN CONTEXT: SOCIO-LEGAL JOURNAL 112, 113 (2007)). Clark also cites Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom, State-Level Restriction of Religious Freedom and Women’s Rights: A Global Analysis, 64 POLITICAL STUDIES 832, 834 (2016) (warning against a simplistic view of secularism as inherently promoting gender equality); and Nazila Ghanea, Piecing the Puzzle—Women and Freedom of Religion or Belief, 20 THE JOURNAL OF FAITH & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 4 (2022).
1011. See GRIM & FINKE, supra, at 207; Bloom, supra, at 837.
1012. Kelsey Zorzi, The Intersection of Women’s Rights and International Religious Freedom, 11(2) JOURNAL OF CHRISTIAN LEGAL THOUGHT 40, 42–43 (2021).
1013. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting Lisa Winther, Freedom of Religion or Belief: an Enemy or an Ally in Our Struggle for Gender Equality?, G20 INTERFAITH FORUM: VIEWPOINTS (Jan. 8, 2021), https://blog.g20interfaith.org/2021/01/08/freedom-of-religion-or-belief-an-enemy-or-an-ally-in-our-struggle-for-gender-equality).
1014. Bloom, supra, at 836.
1015. Id.
1016. Id.
1017. Zorzi, supra, at 43.