Religious Authority and Political Compromise: Evidence from Religious Leaders in Israel

Why are some religious leaders able to help resolve conflict while others have little impact? In this paper, we examine to what extent different types of religious leaders are able to generate a greater willingness among local populations to make political compromises with out-groups in symbolic conflicts. We propose a theory which distinguishes between political credibility and religious authority, arguing that religious authority plays an often overlooked role for religious leaders. We use an experimental survey design with different populations from across the religious spectrum in Israel. Our findings from Study 1 suggest that religious leader authority, combined with political credibility, contributes to greater public willingness to make political compromises in symbolic conflicts. In contrast, Study 2 finds that political credibility or religious leader authority on its own has little impact on political compromise. Overall, our results provide a possible explanation for why cases of religious peacemaking are rare.