Fundamentalists and Politics: An Analysis of the Effects of Differing Operational Definitions

Although the past decade has seen a marked increase in research that explores the political beliefs and behaviors of fundamentalist Christians, this research has suffered from a diversity of operational strategies. Early research operationalized fundamentalists by their denominational affiliation, while most later research has focused on doctrinal beliefs. This analysis suggests that the groups identified by these two strategies are different in demographic characteristics, political beliefs, and political behaviors. The fundamentalists identified by the doctrinal definition have higher levels of socioeconomic status, and are less Southern and rural than those identified by the denominational definition. These doctrinal fundamentalists are more conservative on women's issues and economic issues, and are more politically active and Republican. The analysis suggests that attempts to integrate literature that has employed these different operational definitions should be made cautiously.