The Supply‐Side Model of Religion: The Nordic and Baltic States

The paper uses the fortunes of religion in the Nordic and Baltic States to identify weakness s in the supply‐side model of religious behaviour promoted by Stark, Finke and Iannaccone. Changes in religious observance in the Nordic countries over the twentieth century, and comparisons between them, contradict a number of supply‐side propositions. Comparisons between the Baltic states similarly show no support for supply‐side claims. Instead both clusters suggest that the fate of religion owes more to its links with ethnicity, national consciousness and national conflict and to the theology and ecclesiology of the religion in question than to issues of state regulation.