Religious Allegiance and Economic Development in Rural Latin America

Abstract

The possible correlation between religious affiliation and economic status and development has long interested social scientists. The purpose of this study is to analyze the potential contribution of Protestantism to the agricultural and economic development of Latin American agrarian communities.The effects of religious affiliation on economic behavior have been studied most extensively in Western Europe and the United States. Max Weber (1958: 35) concluded in his pioneering study,The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, that in nations of mixed Catholic-Protestant religious composition the business leaders, owners of capital, and higher grades of skilled labor were “overwhelmingly Protestant.” Weber's initial intent was not to compare Protestant and Catholic economic achievement in Germany but, rather, to provide a non-Marxist interpretation of the rise of industrial capitalism and the attendant expansion of urbanization.