How morality politics determine morality policy output – partisan effects on morality policy change

Where is the party? Explaining positions on same-sex marriage in Europe among would-be members of parliament

“…Research shows that parties have distinguishable positions on some issues of LGBT politics and there tends to be a clear left/right split on whether to expand LGBT legislation (Adam, Knill, and Budde 2020;Turnbull-Dugarte 2020a). Given the association between left-wing government incumbency and the advance of SSM/SSP laws, however, our first hypothesis is that candidates from left parties will be more supportive of SSM than candidates from the right.…”

“…LGBT rights is that legislative voting on these issues is so-called "morality politics": a unique subset of policy areas where partisanship is far less likely to play a constraining and incentivizing role over legislators' preferences (Engeli, Green-Pedersen, and Larsen 2012). Policy concerns that have typically been tagged within the umbrella of morality concerns include, amongst others, embryo and stem-cell research (Arzheimer 2015(Arzheimer , 2020Banchoff 2011), reproductive rights, euthanasia (Adam, Knill, and Budde 2020;Engeli, Green-Pedersen, and Larsen 2013), and SSM rights (Adam, Knill, and Budde 2020). Morality issues are distinct from "bread and butter" politics in that public and legislators' views on these issues are more likely to be informed by a core set of fundamental values unique to the individual that makes them less amenable to partisan cues and whips (Engeli, Green-Pedersen, and Larsen 2012;Mooney 2001).…”

“…. Most Western monotheistic religions condemned and prohibited homosexual relations under their religious doctrine although evidence from Europe shows majority-mainline Protestant countries are more likely to adopt SSP/SSM laws sooner than Catholic ones(Adam, Knill, and Budde 2020;Kollman 2013), and there is evidence of higher levels of homonegative attitudes among Orthodox Christians, Muslims and evangelical Protestants than among Catholics (Brajdić Vuković and Štulhofer 2012). More specifically, when individuals believe that homosexuality is a moral choice, as taught among most traditional or orthodox interpretations of the Hebrew Bible in Western, Magni and Reynolds (2020) provide cross-national experimental evidence that non-heterosexual candidates suffer a significantly higher electoral penalty among religious voters than they do among non-religious voters.Anecdotal evidence shows the importance of an individual legislator's beliefs for MPs' voting behaviour on LGBT rights.…”

New Zealand's failed cannabis legalization referendum – implications for cannabis policy reform

“…Public attitudes on these issues of morality continue to divide opinion in liberal Western societies [8] . These, by contrast, crucially differ from initiatives to legalize ‘medically-assisted dying’ or to allow ‘medical cannabis use’ which are predominantly viewed as compassionate or care-oriented responses to (suffering) others, and therefore attract much greater acceptance and support across different socio-ideological perspectives [9] .…”

Without enemies, without friends. Morality policies, the Roman Catholic Church, and Ireland’s ‘secular’ party system

“…Therefore, it is not surprising that the role of churches and especially the RC Church has become a central theme in the rapidly growing literature on the politics of morality issues (e.g., Knill and Preidel 2015;Euchner and Preidel 2018;Budde et al 2018). One central discussion within this literature relates to the idea of 'two worlds of morality politics', presented by Engeli et al (2012; see also Euchner 2019;Hurka et al 2018;Adam et al 2019;Studlar et al 2013).…”